On Friday, February 11th @ 11:00AM ET, we welcome Prof. Yamuna Krishnan from the University of Chicago as she presents, "Quantitative Chemical Imaging of Organelles."

ABOUT THE SEMINAR

Quantitative Chemical Imaging of Organelles

To quantitate lumenal chemistry, my lab developed a DNA-based reporter technology coupled with image analysis methods to derive chemical heat-maps of organelles by fluorescently imaging lumenal ions or reactive species in living systems. This technology can now be used for discovery biology or biomedical applications by interrogating organelles of cells in culture, in live multicellular organisms in cells obtained from blood or skin biopsies from human patients. We recently solved a thirty-year problem in molecular sensing by mapping lumenal calcium in acidic organelles and in doing so, identified the first example of a protein that facilitates lysosomal Ca²⁺ import in the animal kingdom. We have used a fluorescent DNA-based reporter of absolute membrane potential to measure the previously unknown membrane potentials of different organelles in situ in live cells. I will close with a discussion on what it would take to develop an electrochemical model for every organelle membrane, thereby enabling an exploration of the genesis and function of organellar electrochemical gradients.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Yamuna Krishnan, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry & Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, University of Chicago

Yamuna Krishnan is Professor at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago since 2014. She received a PhD in Organic Chemistry in 2002 from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and was an 1851 Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research group pioneered the use of DNA-nanotechnology to study living cells and taking DNA-nanotechnology into the world of precision medicine. She was featured on Cell’s top 40 under 40 of scientists that are shaping current and future trends in Biology and the LSDP’s Top 100.

ABOUT THE 2021-2022 BME SEMINAR SERIES

The Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University is proud to host an annual weekly seminar series on the latest developments and research in Biomedical Engineering. The weekly series takes place on Friday mornings at 11:00AM Eastern and includes a variety of renowned academics from top universities to talk about their specific research and experience.