Cancelled! PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY Science at the Edge Friday, February 12, 2010 11:30a 1400 Biomedical & Physical Sciences Bldg Refreshments at 11:15a in 1400 BPS Bldg Sunney Xie Harvard University "Life at the Single Molecule Level" In a living cell, gene expression - the transcription of DNA to messenger RNA followed by translation to protein - occurs stochastically, as a consequence of the low copy number of DNA and mRNA molecules involved. Can one monitor these processes in a living cell in real time? How do cells with identical genes exhibit different phenotypes? Recent advances in single-molecule imaging in living bacterial cells allow these questions to be answered at the molecular level in a quantitative manner. It was found that rare events of single molecules can have important biological consequences. Kim Crosslan Undergraduate Secretary Dept. Physics & Astronomy Michigan State University 1312 Biomedical & Physical Sciences East Lansing, MI 48824 517-884-5531 <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]