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Julea Vlassakis

Julea Vlassakis

Assistant Professor of Bioengineering CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research

Bioengineering

CONTACT

vlassakis@rice.edu

WEBSITE(S)| Microtechnologies Laboratory for Pediatric Oncology

SURF Mentoring

Potential projects/topics: Our lab focuses on Ewing Sarcoma, a rare and aggressive pediatric cancer. This cancer is driven by one protein, which dysregulates DNA. We aim to conduct experiments to study DNA-protein interactions on a single molecule-level using custom tools. Undergraduate mentees will play a hands-on role with experiment design. Depending on mentee interest, potential research projects include optimizing micropatterning or force-measurement workflows, understanding how physical and biochemical parameters affect DNA mechanics, or contributing to data collection and processing pipelines for single-particle tracking.

Potential skills gained: Micro- and nanotechnology design, Molecular biophysics quantitative analysis, Molecular imaging and microscopy, Cancer biology hypothesis generation and testing, Laboratory research best practices, Reading and understanding biophysics literature

Required qualifications: None required

Direct mentor: Graduate Student

Student Project Titles List

Nanofluidic Sieves on Microfluidic Channels for Separation of Biomolecules

Optimizing a Subtractive Microcontact Printing Process to Create Sub-Micron Protein Features

Research Areas

The Microtechnologies Laboratory for Pediatric Oncology is focused on the study of protein interactions, signaling and conformations responsible for fusion oncoprotein-driven pediatric cancers. Such pediatric cancers are marked by a paucity of genetic mutations, and instead fusion proteins and their interactions are responsible for cancer cell proliferation and metastasis. By understanding the key protein conformations and interactions of cancer progression, we aim to deliver the next generation of ‘molecularly surgical’ therapies. We design tools to study key macromolecular interactions and structures at the micro and nano length scales of cancer biology.