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From maps to blobs: integrative interrogation of cellular stress response in physiology and disease

Speaker: Sethu Pichiaya

ABSTRACT: Mammalian cells are constantly challenged by a multitude of intrinsic and environmental stresses. In response, cells trigger corrective measures to make critical cellular decisions, but the mechanistic basis is not fully known. Here, we discuss how integrating contemporary imaging and omics technologies provide an unprecedented mechanistic view of cellular stress response across biological scales – from nano-to-mesoscale reorganization of biomolecules within gene regulatory condensates, to tissue-wide rewiring of regulatory programs. Building on these findings, our work is beginning to shed light on how aberrant stress responses contribute to pathology, paving the way for a new wave of diagnostics and therapeutics.

SPEAKER BIO: Dr. Sethu Pitchiaya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urology and Department of Pathology, at the University of Michigan. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry (Chemical Biology) at the University of Michigan, wherein he studied small non-coding RNA function and metabolism. As a postdoctoral fellow, he built ultra-sensitive microscopes and was engaged in translational prostate cancer research, specifically investigating long non-coding RNAs and the tumor microenvironment. In his independent lab, Sethu and his team have taken on a new challenge of understanding how mammalian cells respond and adapt to stress and how these programs go awry in degenerative pathologies and cancer. The lab’s current thrust is to dissect the link between sub-cellular organization within membrane-less condensates, gene regulation and cell signaling in cellular homeostasis and cell fate decisions in health and disease. Sethu’s research spans various disciplines, including molecular biology, cell biology, chemical biology and biophysics and he employs contemporary methodologies such as single-molecule microscopy, super-resolution imaging, single-cell sequencing and spatial omics. Sethu’s research has been supported by numerous foundation and federal awards such as The Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award, NCI-Prostate SPORE Career Development Award, and Department of Defense Idea Development Award to name a few. Most recently, Sethu received an R35-MIRA (Outstanding Investigators Award) from the NIH-NIGMS. Sethu’s work has been published in reputed journals including Nature Genetics, Molecular Cell and PNAS, and his collaborative efforts have been featured in journals such as Nature, Cell and Nature Cell Biology.

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