Multi-omic measurements of cellular dynamics

“Ultimately, when you look at any biological question it becomes a chemical problem” – Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2009

To really understand how cells work, we need new tools to measure the dynamics of processes in cells. Reaction networks are key to how cells process information about the changes in their environment. Although much is known about their topology, we know very little about their dynamic properties. What is the importance of cell size, volume and shape? How fast do cells respond to external stimuli (i.e., drugs)? How do they separate noise from ‘real’ signals? Primarily, this knowledge gap is a result of the lack of suitable tools to measure changes in the key reaction networks (gene expression and signalling networks) at multiple timescales in single cells. In this group, we develop new experimental and computational tools to quantify mRNA, intracellular and extracellular protein levels and metabolic activity in single cells

Keywords: single-cell transcriptomics, sequencing, signaling pathways, microfluidics, fluorescence microscopy, cell biology

Key publications: Science Advances 2020, 6, eaaz3849; Advanced Biosystems 2020, 4 , 1900188; Scientific Reports 2019, 9, 1469; Nature Communications 2018, 9, 3317