EPFL BioE Talks SERIES "Optical, Thermal, and Autonomous Control of Protein Condensation And Cell Behavior"
Event details
| Date | 27.10.2025 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. Lukasz Bugaj, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (USA) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
WEEKLY EPFL BIOE TALKS SERIES (sandwiches provided)
Abstract:
Remote-controllable proteins allow a high-resolution understanding of cell regulation through space and time. I will highlight our recent discovery of a fungal protein that responds to both light and temperature and our efforts to engineer these responses for an array of new molecular probes, with particular focus on purely temperature-sensitive proteins for control of cells deep within opaque animal tissues. I will also describe our recent development of the CluMPS, a fluorescent biosensor of small protein complexes that would otherwise fall below the detection threshold of light microscopy. I will show how CluMPS revealed the unexpected presence and dynamics of protein assemblies that drive cancer and the cell stress response.
Bio:
Lukasz Bugaj is an Assistant Professor in Bioengineering. He earned his BSE in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He then earned his Ph.D. in Bioengineering with David Schaffer at Berkeley, where he pioneered some of the first methods for light-activated 'optogenetic' control of mammalian cell signaling. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Wendell Lim at UCSF, where he applied optogenetic technology to uncover functional signaling defects in cancer cells. The Bugaj Lab at Penn combines optogenetics and synthetic biology to understand and engineer biological control, including within therapeutic cells.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to attend this talk, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
Abstract:
Remote-controllable proteins allow a high-resolution understanding of cell regulation through space and time. I will highlight our recent discovery of a fungal protein that responds to both light and temperature and our efforts to engineer these responses for an array of new molecular probes, with particular focus on purely temperature-sensitive proteins for control of cells deep within opaque animal tissues. I will also describe our recent development of the CluMPS, a fluorescent biosensor of small protein complexes that would otherwise fall below the detection threshold of light microscopy. I will show how CluMPS revealed the unexpected presence and dynamics of protein assemblies that drive cancer and the cell stress response.
Bio:
Lukasz Bugaj is an Assistant Professor in Bioengineering. He earned his BSE in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He then earned his Ph.D. in Bioengineering with David Schaffer at Berkeley, where he pioneered some of the first methods for light-activated 'optogenetic' control of mammalian cell signaling. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Wendell Lim at UCSF, where he applied optogenetic technology to uncover functional signaling defects in cancer cells. The Bugaj Lab at Penn combines optogenetics and synthetic biology to understand and engineer biological control, including within therapeutic cells.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to attend this talk, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
- send D. Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally before seminar day), informing that you plan to attend the talk online, and, during seminar:
- be signed in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not any alias making it difficult or impossible to identify you).
Practical information
- Informed public
- Registration required
Organizer
- Prof. Sahand Rahi, Institute of Physics & Institute of Bioengineering
Contact
- Institute of Bioengineering (IBI), Dietrich REINHARD