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The Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dr. Sabrina Leslie research talk
November 3, 2020 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Please consider attending a research talk from Dr. Sabrina Leslie, hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Leslie is one of our newest MSL faculty recruits who will start with us in January 2021.
Tuesday, November 3, 2020 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/66656386980?pwd=QnV0WkJrVHpGNnNqRXE5U21tMUlLUT09,
Passcode: 243095
Talk title: Single-molecule microscopy platform for therapeutics research and development: the next level of resolution
Abstract
Molecular interactions lie at the core of biochemistry and biology, and their understanding is crucial to the advancement of biotechnology, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Most existing tools make “ensemble” measurements and report a single result, typically averaged over millions of molecules or more. These measurements can miss rare events, averaging out the natural variations or sub-populations within biological samples, and consequently obscure insights into multi-step and multi-state reactions. The ability to make robust and quantitative measurements on single molecules, cellular complexes and cells is a critical unmet need. In this talk, I will introduce a general method called “CLiC” imaging to image molecular interactions one molecule at time with precision and control, without tethers, and under cell-like conditions. CLiC works by mechanically confining molecules to the field of view in an optical microscope, isolating them in nanofabricated features, and eliminates the complexity and potential biases inherent to tethering molecules. By directly imaging the trajectories of many single molecules simultaneously and in a dynamic manner, CLiC allows us to investigate and discover the design rules and mechanisms which govern how therapeutic molecules (or molecular probes) interact with target sites on nucleic acids, and how molecular cargo is released inside cells from lipid nanoparticles. In the outlook of this talk, I will discuss applications of our single-molecule platform to help develop and understand emerging classes of genetic medicines as well as gene editing and drug delivery systems, and highlight applications to connect our observations from the level of single molecule to single cells.
