IMAGING & PHOTOMANIPULATION

University Of Virginia, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The goal of the Imaging and Photomanipulation Initiative (I&PI) is to develop technologies for[unreadable] measuring and perturbing the localized activities that mediate and regulate cell migration and to use these[unreadable] technologies to make quantitative measurements for modeling cell migration. The emerging experimental[unreadable] paradigm is to initially detect and quantify local molecular events in migrating cells and then to manipulate such[unreadable] events by local activation or inactivation and assess the consequences on the migratory process. The Initiative[unreadable] has made great progress in developing the chemical and physical technologies and reagents to implement this[unreadable] paradigm. The goals for the next granting period are not only to continue developing these technologies, but[unreadable] also to use them on prototypical migration phenomena to develop working paradigms for studying cellular[unreadable] processes that are tightly regulated both spatially and temporally. The objectives of the I&PI are to: (1) develop[unreadable] and test, in cell cultures, in micro-patterned cell cultures, and tissues, new biosensors and probes both for local[unreadable] photoactivation and local photoinactivation, using chromophore assisted laser inactivation (CALI); (2) continue[unreadable] development of correlation methods for measuring molecular interactions, concentrations and dynamics both in[unreadable] vitro and in tissues; and, (3) use the advances provided in objectives (1) and (2) to develop data useful for[unreadable] modeling migration phenomena by investigators both inside and outside the Consortium.