In vivo Optical Control of Gene-Silencing in Japanese Medaka Fish Embryos

Jean-Paul Desaulniers received his PhD from Wayne State University in 2005 and afterwards was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan until 2008. In 2008, he joined Ontario Tech and focuses his research program on nucleic acid chemistry and biology. He is currently the Ontario Tech University Research Excellence Chair in Chemical Biology, where he is specifically interested in chemically-modifying short RNAs for gene-silencing and gene-activating applications. His group has interest and experience in labelling RNAs with small molecules to assist in receptor-mediated cell update (example, folic acid). His group also has interest and experience in optically controlling gene-silencing with azobenzene-containing compounds, which is the focus of this talk. He collaborates with groups from various countries and enjoys leading student-exchange programs with Universities in Japan, China and Thailand.