| Talk title | Single Molecule Biosensors for Dynamic Multigene Analysis in Complex Tissue Environments |
| Speaker | Prof. Pak WONG Professor Department of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Surgery The Pennsylvania State University |
| Date & Time | 9 November 2018 (Fri) 2:30pm-3:30pm |
| Venue | Room G004, E12 Building (University of Macau) |
| Abstract | Heterogeneity is a common feature of biological systems. The heterogeneity across multiple levels collectively drives a variety of biological processes, such as tissue morphogenesis and cancer invasion. Conventional biosensing approaches for characterizing molecular and cellular heterogeneity, however, are often limited due to the requirement of a large number of cells. Furthermore, the existing single cell analysis techniques often require physical isolation or lysis of cells to “snapshot” RNA and protein biomarkers in a small subset of cells. Features of the complex microenvironment, such as hierarchical organization and dynamic cellular processes, are inherently lost by studying cells in isolation, fixation, and lysis. To address this challenge in biomedical research, we are developing a nanobiosensing platform to enable dynamic single cell gene expression analysis in complex tissue environments. In particular, we design nanoengineered probes that enable endocytic uptake for real-time, dynamic intracellular detection of mRNA/miRNA, protein, and small molecules in living cells and tissues. In this presentation, I will discuss the application of the nanobiosensing platform for probing leader cell formation during wound healing and bladder cancer heterogeneity. |
