Using microfluidics for high-throughput and quantitative biophysics and biochemistry

Macromolecular interactions drive all biological processes: proteins bind DNA and RNA to regulate transcription and translation, dense networks of protein-protein interactions convey cellular signals, and enzyme-substrate interactions allow all of the chemical transformations essential for metabolism and signaling. The strength of these interactions predicts the timing and identity of downstream responses; therefore, quantitative biophysical and biochemical measurements are critical to decipher these networks, predict how they are disrupted in disease, and manipulate them for therapeutic purposes. Here, I will discuss the development of and results from several new microfluidic platforms that make it possible to acquire quantitative biochemical and biophysical data in vitro for thousands to millions of sequence variants in parallel.

Speaker: Polly Fordyce, Stanford University