A biomedical engineer listens in on what proteins are saying.
As inventions go, Yale biomedical engineer Rong Fan’s entry into the innovation sweepstakes is not much to look at. Fan’s device, impressively named a single-cell, 45-plex protein secretion measurement platform, seems to be little more than a sandwich of two sheets of clear silicon rubber the thickness of window glass, each sheet a bit smaller than a credit card and bearing a smaller, darker rectangle divided into 14 vertical sections. It has no flashing lights, no intriguing noises, no moving parts, no signs of Applesque high design. Indeed, the object, displayed in Fan’s bustling laboratory on the first floor of the Daniel L. Malone Engineering Center, doesn’t appear to be doing anything at all. (more…)
The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project is the effort of hundreds of scientists to describe the workings of the human genome. Their research, outlined in 30 papers published in multiple journals Sept. 5, has confirmed our genome is far more complex than originally thought. Regions that contain instructions for making proteins, which carry out life’s functions, account for only about 1 percent of our genome. ENCODE has shed light on the other 99%. Almost 80 percent of the genome is biochemically active, much of it involved in some sort of regulation of genes. Vast regions of our DNA once considered “junk” contain some 400,000 regulators called enhancers, which play a key role activating or silencing genes despite residing far away from the gene itself. Yale University researchers played a key role ENCODE, helping to author 9 of the 30 papers published in four journals on Sept. 5. Some of their work is described below.
The massive Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) unveiled Sept. 5 reveals a human genome vastly more rich and complex than envisioned even a decade ago. In a key supporting paper published in the journal Nature, the lab of Yale’s Mark Gerstein, the Albert L. Williams Professor of Biomedical Informatics, has found order amidst the seeming chaos of trillions of potential molecular interactions. (more…)
