Prof. Michael Sussman, University of Wisconsin-Madison

New Technologies for Transcriptome, Proteome and Metabolome Profiling

Systems biology is a comprehensive means of creating a complete understanding of how all components of an organism work together to maintain and procreate life. By quantitatively profiling one at a time, the effect of thousands and millions of genetic and environmental perturbations on the cell, systems biologists are attempting to recreate and measure the effect of the many different states that have been explored during the 3 billion years in which life has evolved. A key aspect of this work is the development of innovative new approaches to quantify changes in the transcriptome, proteome and metabolome. In this seminar I will describe some new profiling techniques in use in my lab at the University of WIsconsin, including a maskless array synthesizer-derived millichip technology that is attempting to make DNA chips as easy and cheap as agarose gels, and a heavy isotope assisted procedure using tandem mass spectrometry for profiling the phosphoproteome and metabolomes of Arabidopsis, mice and other organisms.

For more information contact Prof. Nils Kröger (404) 894-4228.