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Cellular Instrumentation and ControlBioelectric and Biomagnetic Phenomena John P. Wikswo, Jr., Ph.D.
Description of Research Program VIIBRE* (Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education)
VUSE Faculty Page* Description of Research Program: For the past thirty years, Dr. John Wikswo has had an active research program that utilizes electromagnetic theory and measurements to study the production, measurement, modeling, and interpretation of the electric and magnetic fields produced by bioelectric current sources in conducting media. There are several common threads through his research program: magnetometry, electromagnetic theory, biophysics, electrophysiology, biomedical engineering, the mathematical modeling of experimental data, and instrument development. He and his group have been working primarily in three areas: the study of the linear and non-linear electrical properties of cardiac tissue during stimulation, propagation, and recovery for threshold- and defibrillation-strength shocks; the electrical behavior of intestinal smooth muscle, as can be observed using SQUID magnetometry; and the magnetic fields produced by corrosion currents in aluminum.He is now beginning a major effort to develop and apply micro- and nano-scale devices for instrumenting and controlling the single biological cell and small populations of interconnected cells. The challenge of the post-genomic and post-proteomic era is to ascertain the function of individual proteins, super-molecular assemblies and physiological subsystems. To meet this goal, he and his collaborators have created the Cellular Instrumentation and Control Group, which involves fourteen faculty members in Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, Pharmacology, and Physics & Astronomy. They have begun to develop and apply a new class of cellular instrumentation that will allow simultaneous recording of multiple signatures of a variety of cellular metabolic and signaling processes with sufficient bandwidth that appropriate actuators can be used to achieve stable, real-time, closed-loop external control of a single living cell. Such an instrumented and controlled cell would allow them to address some of the virtually innumerable questions being raised by the explosion of genomic and proteomic information that we will witness over the next decade. Description of VIIBRE The goal of the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education (VIIBRE) is to help strengthen basic research, technological development, and the delivery of advanced education in the biophysical sciences and bioengineering at Vanderbilt. VIIBRE was created in 2002 after extensive, university-wide strategic planning and a major investment from the Vanderbilt Academic Venture Capital Fund (AVCF). VIIBRE is taking advantage of both the strength of biological and physical sciences, medicine, engineering, and education at Vanderbilt, and the extent of existing widespread on-campus collaborations by targeting for further development the research areas of cellular instrumentation and control, biomedical imaging, technology-guided therapy, biological applications of nanosystems, cellular/tissue bioengineering and biotechnology, and bioengineering education technologies. Through a balanced set of investments targeted towards faculty development, postdoctoral training, graduate and undergraduate education, industrial collaboration, public outreach, and cutting-edge research, VIIBRE is leveraging AVCF and grant funding into a permanent program of research and education in an area that will be central to the advancement of biology, bioengineering and health care for the foreseeable future. The VIIBRE program, because of its careful integration of research with education, and biology with engineering and the physical sciences, is designed to serve as a model program that will demonstrate successful interactions at the multifaceted interface of biology, chemistry, education, engineering, medicine, and physics in a private, research-intensive university. Current Projects Include:
Recent Publications: see http://www.vanderbilt.edu/viibre/wikswo-pubs.php* * - opens in a new window |
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