Arjun Raj
Assistant Professor
Bioengineering (BE)
Research Expertise: Molecular Engineering | Bioengineered Therapeutics Devices and Drug Delivery | Cellular and Molecular Imaging
Molecular biology traditionally focuses on the behaviors of molecules by averaging the behavior of those molecules over many cells; however, many recent experiments have shown that the behavior of individual cells can often deviate significantly from the average, resulting in qualitatively different cellular behaviors. The main focus of the lab is to study molecular biology at the level of single molecules in single cells. This research will yield important information about how cells control and exploit cell-to-cell variability in their function. The Raj lab believes these properties are of crucial importance in the processes of development and cancer. Much of this research involves the use of new methods for imaging single molecules in cells. In particular, the lab has developed a method for detecting individual RNA molecules in situ. The lab aims to use this method to investigate the function of non-coding RNAs and also to investigate the spatial organization of tumors.
Education:
PhD New York University; BA University of California Berkeley
Recent Publications 
- Spo0A~p imposes a temporal gate for the bimodal expression of competence in bacillus subtilis, Mirouze, N. | Desai, Y. | Raj, A. | Dubnau, D., PLoS Genetics, 2012
- Global Analysis of RNA Secondary Structure in Two Metazoans, Li, F. | Zheng, Q. | Ryvkin, P. | Dragomir, I. | Desai, Y. | Aiyer, S. | Valladares, O. | Yang, J. | Bambina, S. | Sabin, L.R. | Murray, J.I. | Lamitina, T. | Raj, A. | Cherry, S. | Wang, L.-S. | Gregory, B.D., Cell Reports, 2012
- Single molecule imaging of RNA in situ., Batish, M. | Raj, A. | Tyagi, S., Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), 2011
- Genes methylated by DNA methyltransferase 3b are similar in mouse intestine and human colon cancer, Steine, E.J. | Ehrich, M. | Bell, G.W. | Raj, A. | Reddy, S. | Van Oudenaarden, A. | Jaenisch, R. | Linhart, H.G., Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2011
- Time-lapse transcription, Nair, G. | Raj, A., Science, 2011