Prof.  Jennifer Prescher (UC Irvine) Chemistry Seminar

Abstract:
Imaging tools have revolutionized our understanding of living systems by enabling researchers to “peer” into tissues and cells and visualize biological features in real-time.  While powerful, these probes have been largely confined to monitoring cellular behaviors on a microscopic level.  Visualizing cellular interactions and functions across larger spatial scales—including those involved in cell migration to distant tissues, immunosurveillance, and other biological processes—remains a daunting task.  My research group is developing general toolsets to image such macroscopic cellular networks and behaviors, and our recent efforts will be discussed.
 

Bio: 
Jenn Prescher earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She later received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, working with Prof. Carolyn Bertozzi on chemical methods to tag cell surface glycans with imaging probes.  Following her doctoral studies, she conducted postdoctoral research with Prof. Christopher Contag at Stanford University.  At Stanford, Dr. Prescher developed new methods to visualize subsets of tumorigenic cells in mouse models of cancer.  She joined the faculty at UC Irvine in 2010, where she is currently a Professor of Chemistry, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences.  Her laboratory focuses on the development of chemical tools and noninvasive imaging strategies to probe multi-cellular systems. 

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