Life in Code, Sound and Signal

A, C, T, and G are the building blocks of DNA—the code that enables life on Earth. They are arranged billions of times to form the human genetic code, or genome. Only about 2% of the genome directly builds the machinery that sustains life, known as “coding” regions. However, the remaining 98% is not all junk—a significant portion helps regulate or even modify how the genome works. Coding regions are often interspersed with these so-called “non-coding” regions that must be removed. My talk will explain how this system works and how it can be used in medicine.

It’s easy to forget about our sense of hearing. While we carry on with our daily lives, the cells within our inner ears are hard at work, constantly transforming the sounds we hear into electrical signals. Unfortunately for us, we are born with all the cells in our ears that we’ll ever have. Once we lose them, they’re gone, along with our hearing! How exactly do we hear? What can we learn from other species about hearing regeneration? And what steps can we take to protect our precious hearing?

Like people, our cells like to talk with each other and interact with their surroundings, known as the extracellular matrix (ECM). ECM provides an environment for cells to grow on and can send signals to the cells. In some diseases, cells send out signals to change their ECM, which then in turn can change how the cells behave. In my research, I am testing how ECM can affect lipedema derived patient cells. Lipedema is a fat disorder that has a lot of ECM remodeling, and I have found that cells from lipedema patients show different behaviors compared to those from non-lipedema patients.