Shedding light on cellular metabolism to fight disease

Enamored by the chemical processes of life, Yihui Shen, J. Peter and Geri Skirkanich Assistant Professor of Innovation in Bioengineering, started her research career as a chemist studying the way that proteins fold and the intricate dynamics underlying life processes.

"It wasn't until I observed the dynamics of a single protein molecule that I fell in love with microscopy," Shen says. "I realized that this imaging tool could not only help us observe biological processes on a small scale, but it could also provide new insight at the interface of engineering, chemistry and physics and solve problems on a large scale."

When Shen turned her attention to microscopy, the field itself was advancing quickly, with improvements being made and new techniques being released every month. Shen dove into a new imaging technique called coherent Raman imaging as a doctoral student at Columbia. "In this type of microscopy, we focus light on a very specific point in the cell and measure the amount of scattered light that comes back after exchanging energy with the molecular vibration," she says. "This approach allows us to visualize the spatial distribution of different molecules, the very chemistry of life I had studied as an undergraduate, at a high enough resolution to gain insights into biological processes, such as tissue organization, drug distribution and cellular metabolism."

Shen came to Penn Engineering with the determination and resources to answer those questions. In her newly established lab, Shen aims to advance the molecular precision of coherent Raman imaging to allow researchers to understand the minutia of metabolism and open doors to new cancer treatments and therapies.

"Metabolism is the process that converts what we eat into energy that supports our activity," she says. "While we might commonly think of it as being the process responsible for our ability to lose weight, it does so much more. It may be the most important chemical process in the body, responsible for energy production and conversion, the synthesis of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and carbohydrates, the removal of waste and toxins from the body and maintaining a stable cellular environment."

This story is by Melissa Pappas. Read more at Penn Engineering Today.