The Papoutsakis Group

The Papoutsakis Group at Northwestern University

The focus of the Papoutsakis Group is to study and modify the regulatory networks that control key cellular programs such as stem-cell differentiation and plasticity or prokaryotic sporulation and stationary-phase phenomena. Its research contributes to the understanding of cellular processes of both fundamental and industrial interests—such as stem-cell bioengineering or the link between sporulation, solvent production and stress response in solventogenic clostridia—and involves interdisciplinary work in the areas of systems biology, metabolic engineering, DNA microarrays, computational genomics, stem-cell biology, and immunology. By combining the use of state-of-the-art microarray platforms and data analysis techniques with classic molecular techniques and genomic tools, the Papoutsakis Group unravels the exquisitely crafted interplay of cellular processes that allow the exploration of cells for beneficial applications from Regenerative Medicine to Industrial Biotechnology.

Scanned image of a 60mer oligo microarray prepared using the Agilent Microarray Scanner. The color of each spot is indicative of the relative expression level for a particular gene. The microarray contains a total of over 22,000 spots representing over 18,000 unique genes; all on a 1"x3" glass microscope slide.