Research Interests:

My major research interest is to study the self-organized behaviors in biological systems. Currently, I am studying the intermediate states of morphogenetic patterns in tissue development and regeneration, and how these states regulate normal and abnormal cellular behaviors including cell proliferation, differentiation, senescence, apoptosis, metabolic changes, and tumor formation. In addition, I am interested in the fundamental mechanisms underlying spontaneous cell polarization and migration, as well as the coordination of signaling transduction and biomechanics that enhance and stabilize spatiotemporal control in biological processes.

Research Statement:

The long-standing challenge in biomedicine has been in understanding how the individual cells control their differentiation and assembly in tissue development and regeneration as a function of space and time. While the cells use genomic information to construct the body, it is imperative to understand how they sense and respond to the 3-d micro-environment which is dynamically evolved during tissue morphogenesis. Unfortunately, most research efforts to date have been focused on either the initial or the final state of tissue morphogenesis. The development and transition of the intermediate states, as well as how they regulate the development of the entire system have not been adequately explored. These intermediate states, however, play a critical role in tissue morphogenesis and need to be addressed immediately and thoroughly. Through optical characterization, analytical modeling, biochemical studies, and nanofabrication, we are studying the transition states in morphogenetic processes at single as well as multi-cellular levels. In particular, for tissue development and regeneration, we are interested in understanding how the transition states non-autonomously regulate the entire system through the coordination of signaling transduction and biomechanics, and how the dysfunction of the regulation can lead to tissue abnormality or tumor formation.

References:

1.      C.H. Lee, J. Wang and C. Guo. (1998) Nanometer imaging by differential confocal microscopy and its application in biology. Proceedings of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. 20, 1715-1718

2.      C.H. Lee, C. Guo, and J. Wang. (1998) Optical measurement of the viscoelastic and biochemical responses of living cells to mechanical perturbation. Optics Letters. 23, 307-309

3.      C. Guo, H. Levine and D.A. Kessler. (2000) Two state behavior in a solvable model of -hairpin folding. Physical Review Letters. 84, 3490-3493

4.      C. Guo, H. Levine and D.A. Kessler. (2000) How does a beta-hairpin fold? Competition between topology and heterogeneity in a solvable model. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 97, 10775-10779.

5.      P-W. Fok, C. Guo, and T. Chou. (2008) Guanine-mediated adsorption of DNA repair proteins. Journal of Chemical Physics. 129, 235101.