Lukasz Bugaj, Ph.D.*

Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow, 
University of California, San Francisco

Interrogating Cell Signal Perception Using Optogenetics

ABSTRACT
Despite decades of cell signaling studies, we have a limited understanding of the cell signaling code: how can cells make diverse and complex decisions using only a small set of intracellular signaling pathways? An intriguing hypothesis is that cells can decode the strength, dynamics, or combinations of intracellular signals. Optogenetic – or light activatible – tools now enable us to test this hypothesis through precise and tunable control over signaling inputs in living cells.  These tools allow us to reverse-engineer the cell, giving fundamental insight into both 1) the cellular machinery and 2) the cell’s ability to process and interpret its dynamic environment. In this talk, I will first describe the engineering of optogenetic proteins for cell signaling, as well as their high-throughput implementation. I will then show how these approaches are revealing principles by which signaling dynamics govern cell fate decisions from neurogenesis to cancer cell proliferation. 

Host: Edward Botchwey, Ph.D.

Thursday, February 16
10:30 a.m.
McIntire Room 3115,
Whitaker Bldg.

Videoconference:
Emory: HSRB E182
Georgia Tech: TEP 104