2024-25 Rising Star speaker
Dr. Jian Shu
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital,
Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology, MIT
Associate Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Wednesday, November 20
4:00 – 5:00 PM
105 Stanley Hall, UC Berkeley
“Decoding, Modeling, and Reprogramming Cells at Scale in the Era of Digital Biology”
Abstract:
Decoding the biological “languages” underlying genetic and cellular states remains a major challenge. Single-cell omics measurements are transforming our understanding of biology; however, they are expensive and destructive, posing challenges for monitoring live cells in tissues and humans over time. Although imaging is non-destructive, low-cost, and scalable, it can be difficult to interpret.
We aim to develop generalizable and scalable experimental and computational frameworks that utilize generative AI to bridge the gap between different data modalities in biology. For example, we have developed a series of technologies that enable the prediction of single-cell omics data from non-destructive imaging modalities, the reconstruction of molecular dynamics over time in live cells through imaging, and the generation of cellular and tissue images from single-cell gene expression profiles (a “DALL-E for biology”). These technologies enable fast and scalable querying and prediction of multi-omics information underlying mammalian and microbial systems using imaging, ideally in real time, in live cells.
By combining multi-modal live-cell and label-free chemical imaging with genetic and chemical perturbations, we have developed massively scalable screening systems to investigate the functions and behaviors of cells across space and time. Translating the different “languages” (data modalities) of biology can unify various views of cell and tissue biology, greatly reducing the need for multiple measurements, towards an ultimate goal of building virtual cells and digital simulators of multicellular systems.
Past Rising Stars
2023-24
Ashleigh Theberge
Associate Professor of Chemistry and Adjunct Associate Professor of Urology, University of Washington
Bioanalytical Systems for Translational Research: From Microscale Cell Culture Platforms to Biofluid Self-Sampling Tools
2022-23
Polly Fordyce
Associate Professor of Bioengineering and of Genetics, Fellow of the ChEM-H Institute, Stanford University
“Microfluidics for High-Throughput and Quantitative Biophysics, Biochemistry, and Single-Cell Biology”
2021-22
Fei Chen
Core Member, Broad Institute, MIT
Assistant Professor, Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University
“Tissue genomics: genomic measurements in context”
View the recorded lecture
2020-21
Tim Downing
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, UC Irvine
PhD Berkeley-UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering, 2013
“Synthetic Genome Regulation for Cell and Tissue Engineering”
2019-20
Professor Krishanu Saha
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering & Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
“Towards nonviral, in vivo genome editing therapies: new tools and models to facilitate translation”
2017-18
Professor Stanley Qi of Stanford University
2016-17
Professor Kim Woodrow of the University of Washington
“Engineering the mucosal microenvironment promotes targeting of particulate and cellular immunotherapies to lymphoid organs”