 Interventional Biology
Research in the Interventional Biology Group takes an interdisciplinary approach to intervene in biological events in order to redirect their course, enable new functions and prevent undesired consequences.
While intervention may also be achieved through conventional molecular biology methods, we are promoting novel interventional routes via a combination of molecular biology methods with materials and phenomena adapted from the physical sciences for both molecular and kinetic interventions.
A prerequisite for meaningful intervention is that we understand the mechanism of biological events and elucidate their developmental nature at the molecular level. Such a mission of systems-wide interrogation and molecular level interpretation would be impossible without the development of a platform of high-throughput biology at the single molecule level as well as the integration of biological, physical and computational disciplines. As a result, current research within interventional biology covers efforts ranging from molecular/cell biology, nanoscale /single molecule imaging and spectroscopy (such as time-resolved fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and hole enhanced Raman spectroscopy), nanomaterials [such as nanofibrous scaffolding materials for stem cells, bio-stimulation material based on Ultrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD)], micro/nano fluidic devices for single cell proteomics and genetic analyses, synthetic molecular technologies, to synchrotron imaging and spectroscopy (such as x-ray fluorescence microscopy- see also metalloproteomics).
The ultimate goal for the interventional biology program is to enable breakthroughs in the life science of regenerative and restorative medicine leading to disease prevention and therapy, as well as, in environmental science, biological carbon sequestration.
At present, the interventional biology program consists of the following projects:
- Enabling tool development for Interventional Biology including in vivo biophysics, high throughput biology at the single molecule level; molecular proteomics at single cell level;
- Interventional Biology for embryonic stem cell and cancer stem cells
- Functional nanoparticles based on hybrid phage and their application as probes/tracers/carriers for molecular imaging and therapeutics;
- Microfluidic digital PCR for single cell genetic analysis from cell community;
- Nanomaterials for scaffolding and interfering stem cells;
- Bio-templated nano-hole array and Hole Enhanced Raman Scattering (HERS) for biological molecule characterization ;
- Synthetic Biology: Synthesis of artificial protocells;
- Synchrotron imaging and spectroscopy (such as x-ray fluorescence microscopy- see also metalloproteomics)
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Biographical Sketch
