BIOELECTRIC ATLAS OF ORGANELLE
Abstract
Intracellular signaling is the basis of all biological activity. As intracellular domains are highly compartmentalized and heterogeneous, the ability to modulate and sense cells at the level of organelles is critical to future precision medicine. To address this challenge, we need minimally invasive tools with high spatiotemporal resolution, that also exhibit large signal-tonoise ratios. Nanostructured semiconductors and DNA nanodevices are prime candidates to fill this unmet need, as their physicochemical properties are highly tunable, they are highly versatile in terms of device functionality, and they are at the right length scale to achieve modulation with sub-cellular resolution. However, their internalization into single cells and specific targeting to organelles have proved to be the rate limiting step in their deployment to study and control organelle function in live cells. In this proposal, Drs. Bozhi Tian and Yamuna Krishnan will develop various methods to localize nanoscale modulation and sensing devices in cells with sub- cellular resolution, explore physical processes to achieve control over organelle functionality, and rationally probe the intracellular bioelectric signaling. The team will target the nanoscale devices to lysosomes, mitochondria, cytoskeletal filaments, the Golgi and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and characterize their individual bioelectric properties and interactions among different organelles, which are still unknown. Though it has been daunting to attempt this in the past, with the new developments in tools for modulation (Tian lab) and sensing (Krishnan) the team now is uniquely poised to achieve the following goals. The successful integration of both approaches - sub-cellular modulation and sub-cellular sensing - can throw open a wide range of scientific questions in intracellular signaling.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2021
- Source ID
- FA95502010387
Entities
People
- Bozhi Tian
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Chicago