Doctoral Student Receives Prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowship

Mr. Zhen Xie, a doctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffery Q. Shen, accepted an invitation from Dr. Yaakov Benenson (FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts) to join his research group as a postdoctoral scholar, starting in October 2006.

At Dr. Benenson’s laboratory, Mr. Xie will study molecular automata. Molecular automata are complex, artificially constructed networks of interacting biomolecules immersed in a native biological environment. Automata gather information encoded from cellular components through molecular sensors, submit it to programmable processing

Zhen Xie

by a computing module, and produce an output that can directly affect the cell. The potential applications of molecular automata include performing complex, real-time measurements in single cells and diagnosing and treating diseases at the cellular level.

Before departing for Cambridge, Mr. Xie will present his dissertation seminar at the UNLV Campus on Friday, September 22, 9:30 A.M., in White Hall, Room 105. The title of his talk is “Roles of WRKY proteins in mediating the crosstalk of hormone signaling pathways: an approach integrating bioinformatics and experimental biology”.