Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Columbia University
Title: Scalable Tools for High-Content, Organ-Scale 3D Spatial Biology and Drug Discovery
Abstract: Biology is undergoing a transformative, AI-driven era, compellingly demonstrated by breakthroughs like AlphaFold, which show that generalizable AI models trained on large, high-quality datasets can solve previously intractable biological problems, such as protein folding. However, scaling this data-driven paradigm from molecules to organ-scale systems is fundamentally limited by the current lack of extensive, subcellular-resolution volumetric datasets that comprehensively span diverse tissues and physiological states, creating a major data bottleneck. Addressing this challenge requires a new generation of high-content 3D spatial biology tools that are scalable, high-throughput compatible, affordable, and compact, while still delivering subcellular resolution across entire intact organs. Our lab's pioneering efforts focus on developing these low-cost, high-performance 3D imaging platforms to democratize submicron-resolution, organ-scale spatial profiling. I will showcase how these technologies enable a range of transformative applications: from uncovering drug-induced brain-wide network reshaping over time and achieving nanoscale mapping of intact brain structures, to enabling high-throughput 3D phenotypic screening and the creation of scalable 3D histopathology systems. Finally, I will highlight our complementary work developing complex 3D neuronal microphysiological systems for in vitro modeling of network dysfunctions associated with complex neuropsychiatric disorders like schizophrenia.
Host: Saeed Tavazoie
