Our goal is to understand the physics and  chemistry of the cell cycle for direct reprogramming of  cells into a needed cell type after injury/disease, bypassing the stem cell intermediate. We know that not only the sequence of the genome is important but also the structure of the chromosomes  to control gene expression and DNA replication. We will seed  a  microfluidic single cell array with 1000+ mature  cells. Cells will then be exposed to growth factors, nutrients and transcription factors to control the cell cycle. As each cell subdivides and produces a “daughter” cell, the daughter cells will be captured either in a second array or a microwell plate for RNA sequencing, DNA sequencing and Hi-C and FISH for chromosome structure.  We will look at the cell division both on the single cell level as well as the population level to determine the statistics of symmetric versus asymmetric division.