Google Maps for the Body

5pm Open House, tour of lab
6pm, talk and Q@A
Bench to Breakthough
Google maps for the body
How spatial Biology is changing the future of medicine.
There is an international consortium with the shared ambition of discovering and documenting the rich diversity of cell types across different human tissues. Understanding cell-type diversity throughout the human body allows researchers to explore how these cell types function and dysfunction in human health and disease states.
The current focus now takes this first-wave information and locates the identified cell types and expressed genes within the intact architecture of a specific organ.
The goal is to create a three-dimensional atlas to help identify where different cell types are located in the tissue, as well as what genes and proteins are being expressed.

Maithreyan Srinivasan (Srini) is a biochemist who builds the tools scientists use to measure what happens inside living cells — technologies that help turn biological discoveries into new medicines and diagnostics.
His career spans many of the milestones of modern genomics. Early on, he helped identify genes that became drug targets, including one behind an early targeted cancer therapy. He was part of the small team that first proved rapid, large-scale DNA sequencing was possible, and later helped sequence one of the first individual human genomes, the genome of Nobel Prize Winner and codiscoverer of DNA structure, James Watson. As a research leader at companies including Agilent and WaferGen, he brought widely used gene-sequencing and single-cell analysis tools to market — launching dozens of products and forging partnerships with institutions such as the Broad Institute, Genentech, and MD Anderson.
More recently, he has pioneered new ways to see many molecules at once inside tissues including new drug treatments that use RNAi technology. Throughout, his goal has stayed the same: turning bold ideas into practical, dependable tools that help researchers and doctors find clearer answers.