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Event Detail (Archived)

Optogenetic and Chemogenetic Technologies for Probing Molecular and Cellular Interactions

The Bruce Merrifield Distinguished Lecture

  • This event already took place in February 2020
  • Caspary Auditorium

Event Details

Type
Friday Lecture Series
Speaker(s)
Alice Ting, Ph.D., principal investigator, professor of genetics, biology, and chemistry, Stanford University
Speaker bio(s)

Spatial compartmentation underlies all cellular signaling, but existing methods to study the subcellular organization of endogenous proteins and RNA - by imaging or fractionation-mass spec for example - have important limitations. The Ting Lab has developed an alternative approach - enzyme-catalyzed proximity labeling - for nanometer resolution spatial mapping of subcellular proteomes and transcriptomes in living cells. Dr. Ting will describe the development of this approach, which includes enzyme directed evolution, and its application to uncover new mitochondrial biology.

In the second part of the talk, Dr. Ting will describe synthetic protease-based optogenetic circuits that convert transient molecular events into stable cellular signals that can be exploited for imaging, selection, molecular characterization, or cellular manipulation. Dr. Ting will give an example of how one such tool (FLARE) can be used to access, manipulate, and sequence specific neuronal subpopulations that are recruited during particular animal behaviors.

Dr. Ting was a Professor of Chemistry at MIT from 2002 to 2016. Her undergraduate education was at Harvard (chemistry), her Ph.D. was at UC Berkeley with Peter Schultz, and her postdoctoral training was at UC San Diego with Roger Tsien. Her lab develops molecular technologies for studying proteins and signaling pathways in living cells and organisms and applies them to neuroscience and mitochondrial biology. Her tools include APEX and TurboID proximity labeling, fluorophore ligases, monovalent streptavidin, and the FLARE neuronal activity integrator. Her work has been recognized by the NIH Pioneer Award, the McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award, and the ACS Arthur Cope Scholar Award, among other prizes. She is an investigator of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.

Open to
Public
Host
Vanessa Ruta
Reception
Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge
Contact
Justin Sloboda
Phone
(212) 327-7785
Sponsor
Justin Sloboda
(212) 327-7785
jsloboda@rockefeller.edu
Readings
https://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/index.php/2020/02/04/recommended-readings-alice-ting-ph-d-friday-february-7th-2020/







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