A Very Small World
Balcarcel focuses on cell metabolism

Balcarcel, left, and Ph.D. candidate Yuansheng Yang hope this research will further knowledge of the most basic functions of the human body.

With ten trillion cells or so in the average human body, you wouldn’t think that what goes on in a single cell would be worth noting, much less probing, studying, measuring and testing.

But to R. Robert Balcarcel, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, the individual cell is far more important than just being the body’s tiny, readily replacable building block. It’s a world in its own right ... a world with clues to warn against chemical and biological warfare attack, prevent cancer, produce life-giving medicines like insulin more efficiently, and unlock the secrets of genetic functioning.

One of the applications of Professor Balcarcel’s research is to help create a bio-sensing system that can warn of chemical or biological warfare attacks. He is focusing on cell metabolism for the “Instrument and Control the Single Cell” project, headed by Gordon A. Cain University Professor and Professor of Biomedical Engineering John P. Wikswo and funded by the Defense Advanced Projects Administration (DARPA) and the National Institutes of Health.

One of the goals of the project is to devise a biosensor that uses individual cells to monitor potential chemical or biological warfare threats. The device, called a nanophysiometer, will record metabolic signals from one or more isolated, living cells and control how the cells respond.

The biosensor is part of an approach to create a multi-phasic cellular biological activity detector that uses individual cells as “canaries in the coal mine,” warning of chemical or biological threats. This approach differs from traditional detectors that are designed to detect the threatening agents themselves.

Professor Balcarcel is developing techniques that can quickly determine the state of a single cell’s health. By studying only a handful of key metabolic processes, he can gain an accurate indication of the conditions that promote or threaten a cell. “Metabolism is the most basic function of a cell, the most fundamental activity of a living thing, because the other functions of growth, replication, sensing and moving all depend on it,” he explains.

Professor Balcarcel has developed a way to simplify the study of stupifyingly complex processes of cell metabolism by measuring only key products of cell metabolism.

In the simplest form, his method will measure metabolites such as glucose, lactate, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Such measurements can in turn be used to estimate the functioning of other key metabolic fluxes and thus the cell’s overall state of health.

He hopes his work will help utilize the information produced by decoding the human genome.

“The Human Genome Project decoded the DNA sequences, but we’re probably decades away from understanding the entire spectrum of genes, molecules and reactions that determine cell physiology,” Professor Balcarcel says. “Ultimately the goal of biological research is to figure out all the molecular details related to genes and cell physiology. In the meantime, metabolic screening can help us use what we already know.”