Dr. Christopher Culbertson's laboratory
"Kinases are enzymes that transfer phosphorous-containing molecules to other proteins, which can be very important to the functionality of the recipient. Our group is interested in how the misregulation of various kinase signaling pathways within a cell leads to uncontrolled cell growth (i.e. cancer). Because of the rapid nature of the kinase signaling processes it is difficult to study such cascades on the pooled contents of many cells; therefore, we are pioneering an alternative method that focuses on measuring kinase activation in individual cells. In order to handle and manipulate individual cells, we use microfluidic devices. These devices have channels etched in them that are smaller than a human hair. We can direct cells through these channels and expose them to various reagents that can either activate or inhibit particular kinases. We then rapidly break open the cell and separate out the various kinases to see how the reagents (both potential cancer causing agents and potential pharmaceutical agents) perturb the signaling cascade."
