Event Details

Alfred E.Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering - Seminar series

Fri, May 02, 2025
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: RTH 109
Speaker: Amy Herr, Ph.D., Professor of Bioengineering, and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator University of California, Berkeley

Talk Title: Design of microanalytical tools to understand single-cell biology

Abstract: My lab is interested in design of microanalytical tools to address cellular-resolution questions that are difficult (or impossible) to answer with existing approaches. Our research spans from questions in cancer biology and developmental biology to symbiotic cellular systems and cell biology. We tackle questions where protein expression, state, and function play important biological roles, and we are particularly interested in questions where proteoforms (e.g., protein isoforms) are key molecular players. In this talk, I will focus on two areas where precision microfluidic tools for molecular and cellular measurements are accelerating biological understanding. First, single-cell genomics and transcriptomics tools have radically changed the biological sciences and biomedicine. Further, microfluidic tools have radically expanded the capabilities of these sequencing tools (e.g., sequencing flow cells and droplet systems). Our aim is to bring the power of single-cell understanding to proteomics (targeted & discovery) by leveraging the precision of microfluidic design. Second, I will describe recent research from my lab that physically links together multiple, independent measurement modalities in a ‘single-cell, same-cell’ paradigm. Our long-term vision is to create tools that allow researchers to ex-post query a unique originating cell for protein-level information, as informed by a priori sequencing-based discovery. Taken together, we strive to introduce tools uniquely equipped to measure both cellular and molecular heterogeneity as a means to more comprehensively understand cellular form and function.

Biography: Dr. Herr is Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. She received a BS degree in Engineering & Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology and MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Professor Herr is an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and an elected member of the National Academy of Inventors. Her research interests include bioinstrumentation innovation to advance quantitation in the biosciences & biomedicine, in particular the study and application of electrokinetic phenomena in single-cell and sub-cellular analyses. She has been recognized as a: Sciex Microscale Separations Innovation Medalist (2018), Visionary Awardee by the City of Berkeley (2017; one of three), Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator (2017-2022), 2016 Mid-Career Achievement Award from the American Electrophoresis Society (AES), 2015 Georges Guiochon Faculty Fellow from HPLC (inaugural), 2012 Young Innovator Award from Analytical Chemistry/CBMS, 2011 NSF CAREER award, 2010 NIH New Innovator Award, 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in chemistry, 2010 New Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry from Eli Lilly & Co., 2009 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award, 2009 Hellman Family Faculty Fund Award from UC Berkeley.

Host: Maral Mousavi