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Real-time Genome Sequencing

Susan Hardin, Ph.D.,
President and CEO, VisiGen Biotechnologies, Inc.

Date/Time:
Tuesday, January 6, 2004
7:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.

Location:
Crowne Plaza Hotel, 6701 South Main St. (713) 797-1110
Map and Driving Information

VisiGen Biotechnologies, Inc. (VisiGen) is developing a sequencing system in which polymerase and nucleotides act together as direct molecular sensors of DNA base identity. More specifically, we are developing a technology that detects the interaction between a modified nucleotide and a fluorescently-modified polymerase. As a nucleotide is incorporated into the growing polymer, energy transfers from the polymerase to the nucleotide and stimulates the emission of a base-type-specific incorporation signature that is directly detected in essentially real-time. Cutting-edge technologies, including single-molecule detection, fluorescent molecule chemistry, computational biochemistry, and genetic engineering of biomolecules, are combined to create this novel sequencing system. Parallel processing of samples in a microarray format may enable large genomes to be sequenced in less than a day. The system is being developed to identify pathogens (or variations thereof) and to enable comprehensive genome analysis.

Dr. Hardin received her undergraduate degree in Biology at Penn State University, and a Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from Indiana University. She performed postdoctoral work at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Dr. Hardin became the Director of the Gene Technologies Laboratory at Texas A&M University, and joined the faculty at the University of Houston as an Assistant Professor of Biology and Biochemistry in 1995. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002. She and five other UH professors founded VisiGen Biotechnologies to develop a method to rapidly sequence individual DNA molecules. Dr. Hardin is President and CEO of VisiGen.

Cost:
$15 - Members with online reservations
$20 - Members with no reservations or non-members with online reservations
$25 - Non-members with no reservations

Reservations:
Registration Closed

 

 

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