Optogenetic approaches in development and cancer

by David Bensimon

at Physics Colloquium

Tue, 24 Oct 2017, 15:30
Nanotechnology institute building (#51) room 15

Abstract

Living organisms are made of cells that are capable of responding to external signals by modifying their internal state gene expression or protein phosphorylation patterns and subsequently their external environment by the release of signaling molecules In multicellular organisms in particular cellular differentiation and signaling is essential for the development of the organism While many of the key actors of these processes are known morphogens in development kinases in signal transduction much less is known of the quantitative rules that govern their interaction with one another and with other cellular players In my talk I will present our results regarding the development of means to optically control the expression and activity of proteins at the single cell level in a live organism and its use as a tool to study morphogenesis and tumorigenesis in zebrafish Our basic idea is to use light to control the activity of proteins through the uncaging of a small ligand cyclofen The photo activated ligand releases from cytoplasmic chaperone complexes a fusion of the ligand receptor with the targeted protein I will present results pertaining to the control of the activity of various proteins the recombinase Cre GFP transcription factors morphogens and oncogenes at the single cell level in a live embryo These results show that single cell control of morphogens and oncogenes is possible in a live organism which open the way for a precise comparison between the relevant models of development and cancer and observations

Created on 17-10-2017 by Bar Lev, Yevgeny (ybarlev)
Updaded on 17-10-2017 by Bar Lev, Yevgeny (ybarlev)