COMSTECH Webinar ‘Molecular Kinetics of Gene Regulation during Embryonic Development’
Flyer: Link
Date: Wednesday, 8th November 2023
Time: 05:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time
(7am Philadelphia, USA time)
Online participation only.
Speaker/Convener
Prof. Dr. Mustafa Mir
Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, USA
Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine,
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, USA
Abstract of the webinar:
During early development, gene expression patterns progressively emerge as cell fates are determined and the embryo takes form. The regulation of patterning occurs across a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. These scales range from the molecular scale dynamics of regulatory proteins binding to genomic loci to activate or repress expression, to the organization of chromatin and distribution of proteins within nuclei at sub-micron to micron scales, to the emergence of domains of gene expression at the scales of hundreds of microns to millimeters. I will discuss the application of high-resolution light-sheet microscopy, single molecule tracking, and new analysis approaches to functionally bridge data acquired across this wide range of spatial and temporal scales. I will present data on how transient assemblies of transcriptional regulators shape the nucleoplasm and regulate gene expression during embryogenesis. I will discuss how combining imaging data with systematic mutagenesis of key transcription factors allows us to dissect how protein-protein interactions influences the ability of transcription factors to efficiently find and bind their genomic targets and regulate transcriptional activity. Finally, I will discuss the broad applicability of our findings to transcription regulation both during development and in disease.
Speakers Profile:
Prof. Dr. Mir received his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2013 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign working with Prof. Gabriel Popescu. During his graduate work he invented new microscopes that provide high resolution quantitative phase images of living cells. He applied these new microscopes to a variety of problems in medicine and the basic life sciences, ranging from clinical pathology of blood samples, to single cell growth, and neural development. For his postdoctoral work Dr. Mir joined the labs of Xavier Darzacq and Robert Tjian at the University of California, Berkeley where he studied gene regulation in Drosophila embryos using a combination of advanced microscopy methods (especially single molecule imaging), biochemistry, and genomics. Dr. Mir built a customized Lattice-Light Sheet microscope to capture the first data on transcription factor dynamics within the nuclei of a living animal embryo. Dr. Mir started his lab at UPenn and CHOP in January 2021. His lab focuses on developing and using advanced fluorescence microscopy methods and analysis tools to study gene regulation and nuclear organization during early embryonic development and in disease. Dr. Mir received the National Institutes of Health Directors new innovator award in 2021 and was selected as an inaugural Freeman Hrabowski Scholar by the Howard Huges Medical Institute in 2023.
Who Should Attend?
Early stage researchers, students, relevant personnel from the research Laboratories and industries.
Registration Form: Click here
For more information please contact:
Ms. Khazima Muazim
Program Manager COMSTECH
khazima@comstech.org
Ms. Maham Yamin
Program Officer COMSTECH
maham.yamin@comstech.org
