Our concept of a stable genome is changing from one in which the DNA sequence is passed faithfully from generation to generation to another in which genomes are plastic and responsive to environmental changes. Growing evidence shows that environmental stresses induce mechanisms of genomic instability in bacteria, yeast, and human cells, generating occasional fitter mutants and potentially accelerating evolution and disease.

March 24 2014 Biodesign Auditorium 727 E. Tyler St. Tempe AZ 85287   Speaker(s): Dr. John S. Mattick is the Director of The Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia.After completing his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of...

Many species of complex animals are able to regenerate entire organs. Our lab studies show that electric gradients control cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation, while bioelectrical signals serve as master regulators of tissue patterning. Molecular-level changes in bioelectric state can initiate complete development of eyes, brains, hearts, limbs, and spinal cords, as well as normalize neoplastic growth. Genetics and bioelectricity thus constitute parallel but interacting layers of biological control, a discovery with sweeping implications for cancer management, regenerative medicine, synthetic biology and bioengineering.

Viable tumor-derived circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been identified in peripheral blood from cancer patients and are probably the origin of intractable metastatic disease. However, the ability to isolate CTCs has proven to be difficult due to the exceedingly low frequency of CTCs in circulation. We introduced several microfluidic methods to improve the sensitivity of rare event CTC isolation, a strategy that is particularly attractive because it can lead to efficient purification of viable CTCs from unprocessed whole blood.