Project Theme 1: Real Time Functional Genomics inside The Living Cell Array
Faculty Advisors:
Yarmush (BME), Hart (MBS), Kohn (CCB), Roth (CBE)
Crossdisciplinary Bridging:
Cell & Molecular Biology, Bioengineering
The overall objective of this effort is to develop a functional genomics tool that would enable the quantitative monitoring of gene expression dynamics in living cells. Toward this end, genetically engineered reporter cell lines that have GFP fused to genes of interest are used, so that the GFP fluorescence serves as a quantitative indicator of expression of that particular gene (15). In order to expand the potential of this approach, microfabricated devices and microfluidics are being developed so that the expression of numerous genes can be simultaneously monitored in response to a combinatorial array of conditions (16). This massively parallel approach to gene expression profiling will be used to study the hepatocellular response to inflammatory mediators and nerve cell response to neurotrophic mediators. Another application is in biomaterials testing where the expression profile in a specific cell type is monitored in response to systematic variations in the chemistry of a combinatorially synthesized library of synthetic polymers.
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