Scott Hansen

Postdoctoral Researcher

e-mail: sdhansen (at) berkeley.edu

 

Education:

2006-2012       University of California at San Francisco           PhD – Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

2002-2004       University of California at Davis                         BS – Molecular & Cellular Biology

 

Research Philosophy:

 

As an experimentalist, I take a reductionist and system biology approach to understand biology. I characterize the biophysical properties of individual proteins and protein networks with the goal of understanding how they function in the context of cellular signaling systems. During both phases of my academic research career I have used single molecule fluorescence microscopy techniques to measure the stoichiometry and dynamics of protein-protein and protein-lipid interactions. These experiences have made me proficient in biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, fluorescence microscopy, and quantitative image analysis. My rigorous biophysical characterization of signaling systems has provided a deeper understanding about how information is relayed between receptors, small GTPases, lipid modifying enzymes, and the actin cytoskeleton. As a postdoctoral scholar in the Groves lab, I'm using supported membrane technology to characterize a two-component lipid kinase-phosphatase competitive reaction that drives spatial pattern formation and stochastic geometry sensing.