Convergence of nanoimaging, physics and biology: Is there a link between species adaptation, evolution, and cancer?

Speaker: Professor Vadim Backman, Northwestern University, USA

Host: Professor Michael Kühl, Marine Biology Section

Abstract
The talk discusses how the development of new optical nanoscale imaging technologies and the modeling of complex molecular interactions involved in gene expression from the physics perspective can help decipher the chromatin folding code, and its regulation of gene expression. I will also discuss how such approaches may help explain how global stochastic patterns of gene expression may influence a wide range of cellular processes, including acclimation, adaptation, and evolution.

3 recent publications

• B. Dong, L. Almassalha, Y. Stypula-Cyrus, B.E. Urban, T.Q. Nguyen, C. Sun, H.F. Zhang, and V. Backman, “Super-resolution intrinsic fluorescence imaging of chromatin using native, unmodified nucleic acids for contrast”, PNAS, 113(35), 9716-9721 (2016). (Won the 2016 PNAS Cozarelli Prize in Applied Sciences and Engineering)
• L.M. Almassalha, G.M. Bauer, J. Chandler, S. Gladstein, L. Cherkezyan, Y. Stypula-Cyrus, S. Weinberg, D. Zhang, P. Thusgaard Ruhoff, H. Roy, H. Subramanian, N. Chandel, I. Szleifer, V. Backman, “Label-free imaging of the native, living cellular nano-architecture using partial-wave spectroscopic microscopy”, PNAS, 113(42) E6372-E6381 (2016). PMC5081614.
• L.M. Almassalha, A. Tiwari, P.T. Ruhoff, Y. Stypula-Cyrus, H. Matsuda, M.A. Dela Cruz, J.E. Chandler, C. White, C. Maneval, H. Subramanian, I. Szleifer, H. Roy, and V. Backman, “The global relationship between chromatin physical topology, fractal structure, and gene expression”, Scientific Reports, 7:41061, DOI: 10.1038/srep41061 (2017).