Systems Biology: Understanding the Physical Architecture of a Cell
with Siowling Soh, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow
Harvard University
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
10 a.m.
Goldwater (GWC) 487 [map]
View seminar flier
abstract: It is important to understand the microscopic properties of a cell, such as the mechanical structure and the machinery for cell migration, especially in the context of human health and cancer.
In this presentation, Siowling Soh will describe the physical architecture of a cell as a result of the interacting molecules in the cellular system. At the molecular level, it is necessary to take into account of the combination of reactions and transport of molecules, such as diffusion, across the cell for understanding microscopic behaviors of a cell. At the systems level, Soh will first discuss the factors determining the size of a cell. Next the talk will focus on the components responsible for the mechanical structure of a cell through analyzing 3-dimensional shapes of cells reconstructed from confocal microscopy. Then the difference in migration strategy of a nonmetastatic cancer cell and a metastatic cancer cell will be discussed. Results from these studies highlight the need to bridge the understanding of a cell from a molecular to a microscopic level, especially for the development of cancer therapeutics and diagnosis.
biosketch: Siowling Soh is currently a postdoctoral fellow working with professor George Whitesides at Harvard University. He obtained his Ph.D. in chemical and biological engineering from Northwestern University. His main scientific interest and experience lie in studying the coupled process of reactions and transport of molecules in complex chemical and biological systems. In particular, he is interested in understanding the microscopic behaviors of cells from a molecular level, which involves networks of reactions and transport of molecules in a cell.
