Physical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Young-Wook Jun, University of California, San Francisco

"Nano Meets Mechanobiology: From single molecule imaging to mechanogenetics with nanoparticle probes"

About the Seminar:

Spatial segregation, clustering, scaffolding, and compartmentalization of receptors as well as ligand-receptor interactions play critical means of controlling the molecular structures, and activities of receptors, and thus cell signaling and function. In mechanical signaling that senses and responds to physical properties of extracellular environments, mechanical force resulting from cell-matrix and cell-cell interactions additionally serves as a key regulator. These spatial, chemical (i.e. ligand-receptor interaction), and mechanical cues often interplay either concurrently or consecutively in many mechanical signaling processes. This enables a vast diversity of signaling outcomes, orchestrating complex multicellular behaviors and functions in developmental, physiological, and pathological processes. Despite recent advances in imaging and force-microscopy studies, little is known about how mechanotransduction receptors integrate mechanical signals with chemical, spatial, and temporal cues to differentially regulate downstream signaling pathways. To address this unmet need, my lab develops single-cell perturbation technology based on nanoparticles capable of localizing, visualizing, and mechanically activating mechanosensitive membrane proteins at the single cell or molecule level. The key to this “mechanogenetic” (i.e. selective and quantitative activation of genetically encoded mechanoreceptors) tool is the ability to quantitatively deliver a specific spatial, biochemical, and mechanical cue to any desired space and at any given time. In this talk, I will discuss about design, fabrication, and utility of the nanoprobe-based mechanogenetic tool. I will further discuss about applications of nanoprobe systems to dissect, interrogate, and understand the molecular mechanisms underlying cell-cell communication processes via Notch and E-cadherin.

About the Speaker:

Young-wook Jun is an Associate Professor at University of California San Francisco. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology under the supervision of Jinwoo Cheon, where he studied shape-guiding mechanisms of inorganic semiconductor, magnetic, and metal nanoparticles. He then did his postdoctoral studies with Paul Alivisatos at UC Berkeley on single particle plasmon coupling microscopy. Since his joining UCSF in 2010, he, rather than continuing simple utility demonstration of nanoparticles in biology, strives to dissect, interrogate, and understand important biomolecular dynamics using the nanoparticle probes. Particularly, his lab aims to address questions of how membrane proteins integrate and transduce chemical, spatial, and mechanical cues to complex downstream signaling. To tackle the question, his lab combines various nanochemistry, biochemical, and biophysical approaches. He involved in many scientific meetings as a session chair and organizers such as ACS, BPS, and ASCB. He has been selected as one of World Most Influential Minds by Thomson Reuters and was a recipient of IUPAC Prize for Young Chemist, Sandler Foundation New Innovator Award, and Hemming Fellows.