Steve Chu is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University.
Our lab studies topics in biology and biomedicine through the development of broadly applicable tools for biology and biomedicine. Specifically, we are developing high-speed, sub-diffraction (super-resolution) microscopy in the visible, the near-infrared imaging, and mid-IR for super-resolution micro-spectroscopy. Areas we are focusing on include: 1) Neuronal signaling: We are working to image the dynamics of synapses in live tissue at super-resolution to better understand the molecular machinery that governs neuronal signal transduction, its response to stimulus, long-term potentiation and synaptic plasticity. 2) Biofilms are bacterial colonies clustered in a matrix of proteins and sugars. Such colonies are largely immune to antibody attack by the host organisms and conventional antibiotics. We investigate structural, chemical, and signaling dynamics of live Vibrio cholerae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms, and novel methods of attacking biofilms. 3) Cancer: Mutational abnormalities, e.g. in Ras and Raf, have been found in roughly half of all human cancers. Recently, we have been able to use super-resolution methods to show that mutant KRas dimerization alone is necessary and sufficient to induce the cell to proliferate. We will be also investigating molecular mechanisms of cancer cell-tissue communication and mobility.
