Project Title:

Microbioreactors, Cell Traps, and Instrumentation for Angiogenesis, Chemotaxis, and Immunology

Professor John P. Wikswo

Brief Description of Project:

The challenge of the post-genomic and post-proteomic era is to ascertain the function of individual proteins, super-molecular assemblies and physiological subsystems. The Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education (VIIBRE) and its participating faculty have begun to develop and apply new classes of cellular instrumentation that will allow simultaneous recording of multiple signatures of a variety of cellular metabolic, signaling and mechanical processes with sufficient bandwidth that appropriate actuators can be used to achieve stable, real-time, closed-loop external control of a single living cell or small populations of cells. Such instrumented and controlled cells would allow us to begin to answer the virtually innumerable sets of questions that will be raised by the explosion of genomic and proteomic information that we will witness over the next decade. Projects of current interest include controlled, capillary- and filter-perfused microenvironments that will allow high-resolution imaging of angiogenesis and transendotheial migration, as occur in growth, development, wound healing, and cancer; controlled nanoenvironments for studying protein dynamics; development of advanced devices to study the motile response of cells to chemical gradients (chemotaxis and haptotaxis); dynamic measurement of metabolism, signaling, gene expression, and protein translation in immune cells following chemical activation or infection; and the design of high-speed automated microscopy systems for studies of cellular dynamics. Training workshops will be offered in AutoCAD and microfabrication, LabView for real-time experiment control.

Number of Open Slots:

4

Contact Information:

John P. Wikswo, Ph.D.
Director, VIIBRE
6807 Stevenson Center
Departments of Biomedical Engineering,
Molecular Physiology & Biophysics,
and Physics & Astronomy
john.wikswo@vanderbilt.edu