Biophysics Seminar

Engineering heterogenous multicellular tissue with native complexity remains one of the holy grails of regenerative medicine and basic biological research. As success in this regard would yield powerful bioengineered constructs useful in functional transplantation, high-throughput drug screening, and fundamental biology investigation, research efforts in our lab have centered around developing and implementing tools to spatiotemporally customize living cell function both from the “outside–in” and from the “inside–out”.

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease, affecting ~10 million people worldwide. One of the most commonly mutated genes in PD codes for Leucine Rich Repeat Kinase 2 (LRRK2). Autosomal dominant mutations in LRRK2 cause familial PD, while mutations in LRRK2 are risk factors for sporadic PD and increased activity of LRRK2’s kinase has been linked to the sporadic form of the disease as well. This has made LRRK2 the main actionable target for PD therapeutics.

The Department of Biochemistry invites professors and scientists from other universities and institutes to present seminars at the University of Colorado Boulder throughout the academic year. These seminars provide an opportunity for faculty and students to learn about exciting current research.

Host: Dylan Taatjes

Host: Dylan Taatjes