Innovative Technology

Systems biology
Large-scale system-wide measurements (gene and protein expression profiling) and computational approaches (bioinformatics) are the tools that we use to figure out the complex network of interactions and feedback loops within cells – integrated circuits of and between cells. These networks form the computational logic, or “thinking,” of the cell that determines how it will react either normally or, in the case of disease such as cancer, inappropriately, to environmental cues.

Nanotechnology
Miniaturization accelerates progress - less time, less material, lower costs, and fewer manipulations are needed to arrive at the answer. Our microfluidic chips and nanosensor assays, probe labeling, chip-based cell cultures and on-chip imaging readouts will allow us to shrink our laboratories to the size of a book that is read through a laptop. Our goal is to integrate the functions of biology, chemistry, biochemistry, and engineering laboratories onto a computer-controlled chip containing cells, body fluids, chemistry labs and measurement tool sets, where scientists will have the principles and techniques of all these disciplines at their fingertips.

Molecular imaging
Preclinical imaging instrumentation - microPET, microCT, and optical detection - literally allow us to “watch cells in action” in the living organism. Our mission is to produce science and technology to enable the examination and measurement of the molecular mechanisms of integrated functions of biology, within the living organism through precise visualization of molecular events. The knowledge and insights we gain through molecular imaging will enhance and accelerate the realization of molecular medicine.