“Dynamic heterogeneity in kinase networks and its potential role in human disease”

As single-cell technologies expand, it is becoming clear that many cellular signaling events are very dynamic, necessitating a time-lapse approach. I will present our work on the single-cell kinetics of two kinases – ERK and AMPK – that play key roles in the response to targeted cancer therapies aimed at disrupting cellular growth, proliferation, and homeostasis. For both of these kinases, we have found that different natural and pharmacological perturbations result in distinct kinetics that cannot be detected by population-level assays such as immunoblots. In both cases, we observe highly dynamic responses that persist for days following the stimulus. Together these findings underscore the concept that, despite the chemically specific nature of modern targeted cancer therapies, their usefulness may be limited by the highly variable kinetics that they induce within cellular populations, resulting in sub-optimal, heterogeneous responses.

When: 10/2/14  4:10-5:00 PM     Where: 1005 GBSF

Location
1005 GBSF