Molecular and Cell Systems

Each of the human body’s approximately 100 trillion cells can perform most of the fundamental functions of life. Understanding how molecules interact to produce these functions is a central biological problem. Conquering this staggering challenge holds the key to designing effective treatments for disease.

Researchers in molecular and cell systems navigate one of the most critical frontiers of modern science: the intersection of molecular and cellular biology with the disciplines of engineering and mathematics. Molecular and cell biology has been at the forefront of a host of molecular discoveries, such as hormones, neurotransmitters, signaling molecules and the genes that encode them. The disciplines of engineering and mathematics provide the quantitative approaches to understand how all of these elements interact as a functioning system. For example, a mathematical concept of the way in which different ion channel molecules converse to produce the electrical vowels that heart cells speak—which, in turn, leads to a heartbeat—forms the basis for understanding heartbeat disorders and posing new therapies.

These approaches are key to unlocking a myriad of complex interactions and behaviors. Within the Department of Biomedical Engineering, not only are researchers developing mathematical and computational models of biological systems, but they also are performing the molecular level experiments to test them.

Research into molecular and cell systems includes:

• Synthetic, systems, and chemical biological approaches to dissecting cellular circuits
• Studies of how protein structure relates to functional properties of ionic channels—molecules that are critical to shaping bioelectric signals
• Studies of the contraction and electrical stimulation of single heart cells and of how heart muscles contract at the molecular level
• Developing in-vitro models to study fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms
• Studies of contraction and force generation in non-muscle cells.
• Using advanced optical technologies to study mechanical forces inside cells
• Developing fluorescence-based assays to monitor protein-to-protein interactions in single cells

See this page for a listing of faculty working in molecular, neural and cardiovascular systems, with descriptions of thier research interests and recent publications.

Faculty working in this area

Scot Kuo Ph.D.

Andre Levchenko Ph.D.

David Yue M.D.-Ph.D.

BME labs working in this area

Advanced Imaging for Molecular and Cellular Studies

Calcium Signals Laboratory

Signal Transduction and Cell-Cell Communication Lab