MIT Overview Molecular cell bioengineering is the application of engineering approaches to develop quantitative understanding of cell function in terms of fundamental molecular properties, and to apply this understanding for improved design of cell-based technologies. Our research group focuses on elucidating important aspects of receptor-mediated regulation of mammalian blood and tissue cell behavioral functions such as proliferation, adhesion, migration, and macromolecular transport. Problems are motivated by health care technologies of interest to pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies.
Research falls into three major areas as outlined below.
We make use of genetically-altered forms of both the receptor and ligands to permit rigorous testing of model hypotheses and predictions. A central objective of this work is design of optimized cytokines for therapeutic and biotechnology applications. The goal is to determine the relative contributions to autocrine signaling of local receptor binding versus binding to receptors on distant cells following diffusion through bulk extracellular media. Implications may exist for cell self-organization in tissue morphogenesis, as well as for dysregulation involved in malignant transformation. Additionally, molecular modeling techniques will be employed to quantify the electrostatic interactions between GCSF and its receptor.