HHMI Investigator
Scientific Director, Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine
Scientific Director, Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology (Allen-CZI-UW)
Professor of Genome Sciences
University of Washington
Title: Molecular recording of mammalian development
Abstract: Biology unfolds over time, within cells and tissues that are opaque to our eyes and instruments. Current molecular measurement paradigms are inherently limited: genomics is destructive and static, and imaging confined to a few channels in visually accessible systems. I will describe our efforts to develop an alternative—molecular recording—in which cells are programmed to write their own histories from within. I will focus on DNA Typewriter and ENGRAM, which record lineage and cellular state information into genomic DNA. Our long-term goal is to reframe phenotyping as an organism-wide, time-resolved measurement, capturing developmental statistics rather than static or tissue-restricted endpoints.
Host: Jellert Gaublomme
