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The “noise” in human cells

Yale Medicine Magazine, 2015 - Spring

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A Yale-led team of scientists has developed a method for mapping cellular “noise,” variations in how human cells react to chemical signals. Their findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help tailor drug delivery and advance semiconductor chip design. The method, devised by systems biologist and biomedical engineer Andre Levchenko, Eng.Sc.D., is based on each cell’s unique reactions to chemical signals—some cells react strongly, while other cells may not react at all. “Knowing how variable the activity is allows us to better target the spectra of activities in those networks,” said Levchenko, the John C. Malone Professor of Biomedical Engineering and inaugural director of the Systems Biology Institute at West Campus.

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