Iwijn De Vlaminck

Biography

We are a biomedical and single-cell genomics lab in the biomedical engineering department of Cornell: our research brings approaches from biophysics and genomics to biomedicine. We pursue novel measurement principles in cell-free DNA diagnostics and single-cell biology.

Research Interests

Cell-free DNA: When cells turn over in body tissue, their genomes persist for some time in circulation in the form of cell-free DNA. Cell-free DNA is abundantly present in plasma and provides an information-rich window into human physiology, with rapidly expanding applications in cancer diagnosis and treatment monitoring, prenatal diagnosis, and monitoring of rejection in transplantation. The lab develops assays to interrogate cell-free DNA via sequencing, with an eye on improved accuracy, lower cost and blood volume requirements, and new applications in clinical diagnostics.

Single-cell genomics: Advances in DNA sequencing and microfluidics now make it possible to perform sequence analyses of the genomes and the gene expression programs of single cells. The lab has an interest in the development and application of sensitive single-cell genome sequencing principles, in particular measurements that retain information about temporal dynamics and spatial context, and combinations of single cell genome sequencing with microscopy techniques. Applications of single cell sequencing are found in human biology and microbiology.

• Drug Delivery & Nanomedicine
• Biomedical Imaging and Instrumentation
• Bioengineering
• Biomedical Engineering
• Molecular & Cellular Engineering
• Computational Systems Biology