About

Andrew Saunders is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design and founding principal of Andrew Saunders Architecture + Design, an internationally published, award-winning architecture, design, and research practice. His practice is committed to the tailoring of innovative digital methodologies to provoke novel exchange and reassessment of the broader cultural context, innovating at scales ranging from product design and exhibition design to residential and large-scale civic and cultural institutional design. Saunders received his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arkansas and a Masters in Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His current research interests include computational geometry as it relates to aesthetics, emerging technology, fabrication, and performance. He has significant professional experience as a project designer for Eisenman Architects, Leeser Architecture, and Preston Scott Cohen, Inc. Saunders has taught and guest lectured at institutions such as Cooper Union and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Most recently, he served as Assistant Professor of Architecture and Head of Graduate Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. In 2004, he was awarded the SOM Research and Traveling Fellowship for Masters of Architecture to pursue research on the relationship of equation-based geometries to early 20th-century pioneers in reinforced concrete. His work includes a book using parametric modeling as an analysis tool of 17th-century Italian Baroque architecture and winning the ACADIA international fabrication competition for the Luminescent Limacon, a lighting fixture inspired by Flemish Baroque portraits and built on computational and material research from his seminar Equation-based Morphologies.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Biochemistry
• Operating system
• Law
• Neuroscience
• Cell biology
• Chemistry
• Food science

Selected publications

• Dietary Bioactive Compounds Trigger Distinct Epigenetic and Metabolic Reprogramming in <i>Lactobacillus acidophilus</i>

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2024 · 2 citations

  • Biology
  • Food science
  • Chemistry

  Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356 (LA), a key probiotic in the human gut microbiota, offers several health benefits. While dietary bioactive compounds are known to influence gut microbiota, their specific mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated how certain dietary bioactive compounds impact LA gene expression and metabolism. Results showed each compound produces unique transcriptional, metabolic, proteomic, and epigenetic profiles in LA. Notably, dietary compounds altered the epigenetic landscape through N4-methylcytosine (4mC) modification, a relatively underexplored form of methyl modification that may play a role in regulating gene transcription. For instance, genistein treatment up-regulated 76 genes and the down-regulated 130 genes in LA. A gene involved in mucus-binding proteins, crucial for bacterial adhesion, was up-regulated 38-fold, likely due to 4mC modifications. Additionally, the gene coding for the melibiose operon regulatory protein increased 78-fold, enhancing melibiose (a prebiotic) production with genistein, but only 1.1-fold with sodium butyrate. This study highlights the potential of dietary compounds for microbial metabolic engineering, offering a non-GMO method for modulating bacterial performance and other biotechnology applications.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mapping cell-cell fusion at single-cell resolution

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2024-12-14

  preprintOpen access

  Cell-cell fusion is a tightly controlled process in the human body known to be involved in fertilization, placental development, muscle growth, bone remodeling, and viral response. Fusion between cancer cells results first in a whole-genome doubled state, which may be followed by the generation of aneuploidies; these genomic alterations are known drivers of tumor evolution. The role of cell-cell fusion in cancer progression and treatment response has been understudied due to limited experimental systems for tracking and analyzing individual fusion events. To meet this need, we developed a molecular toolkit to map the origins and outcomes of individual cell fusion events within a tumor cell population. This platform, ClonMapper Duo ('CMDuo'), identifies cells that have undergone cell-cell fusion through a combination of reporter expression and engineered fluorescence-associated index sequences paired to randomly generated nucleotide barcodes. scRNA-seq of the indexed barcodes enables the mapping of each set of parental cells and fusion progeny throughout the cell population. In triple-negative breast cancer cells CMDuo uncovered subclonal transcriptomic hybridization and unveiled distinct cell-states which arise in direct consequence of homotypic cell-cell fusion. CMDuo is a platform that enables mapping of cell-cell fusion events in high-throughput single cell data and enables the study of cell fusion in disease progression and therapeutic response.

  PublisherDOI

• Reevaluating the Concept of Aging: Long-Term Stress Adaptation as a Key Factor in Yeast Aging

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2023 · 1 citations

  • Biology
  • Cell biology
  • Genetics

  Abstract It has been demonstrated that short-term stress can enhance cellular responses and promote longevity, whereas long-term stress shortens lifespan. Understanding the relationship between short-term and long-term stress could offer new insights into comprehending and modulating age-related diseases. In this study, we investigate this relationship using transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses in the yeast model system ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae ). We employed three metabolic treatments: firstly, treating yeast cells with threshold levels of benzoic acid for 24 hours (Short-term [ST] Stressed Cells); secondly, treating yeast cells with threshold levels of benzoic acid for 500 hours, with sub-culturing every 24 hours (Long-term [LT] Stressed Cells); and thirdly, allowing the long-term stressed cells to grow for 16 hours without any benzoic acid (Recovered Cells). Here, we propose that aging is an evolutionarily conserved cellular adaptation mechanism in response to long-term stress exposure. Under short-term stressed conditions, prominent lifespan-extending metabolites such as trehalose and metabolites linked to tumor suppression in humans, such as 5’-methylthioadenosine, were overexpressed. In contrast, LT Stressed Cells activated genes such as those responsible for epigenetic regulatory enzymes that govern the aging process, and secondary stress response genes, such as heat shock proteins (HSPs) which are associated with adaptation to cell damage but also often associated with aged cells. Chronological lifespan experiments showed that LT stressed cells lived a shorter lifespan compared to ST Stressed Cells. This suggests that the markers of aging (eg. HSPs, certain epigenetic regulators) are expressed in response to long-term stress to enable cell survival but have the long-term effect of reducing lifespan. In support of this hypothesis, we also show that genes exclusively activated in ST Stressed Cells are conserved solely in eukaryotes, while those significantly expressed in LT Stressed Cells (aging related) exhibit high conservation across all domains of life, with a majority having originated from bacteria hinting at the potential evolutionary benefit of aging.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Radical Acts in the Architectural Representation of Space

  transcript Verlag eBooks · 2022-01-22

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Radical Acts in the Architectural Representation of Space

  Architekturen · 2022

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Political Science
  PublisherDOI

• Baroque Topologies: Novel Approaches to Analysis and Representation of the Baroque Interior in the Era of Big Data

  Lecture notes in civil engineering · 2017-07-19 · 3 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Robotic Lattice Smock

  2016-01-01 · 4 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Doors of Time

  2011-01-07

  book1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Documentation Beats Confrontation In Gas Detection

  ASSE Professional Development Conference and Exhibition · 2009-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Gas Detection Technology In Confined Spaces

  ASSE Professional Development Conference and Exhibition · 2008-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Philip A. Wescombe

  Lincoln University

  4 shared

• Damola O. Adejoro

  Lincoln University

  2 shared

• Christopher Winefield

  Lincoln University

  2 shared

• Yanzhuo Kong

  Lincoln University

  2 shared

• J.W. Diggle

  2 shared

• Arvind Subbaraj

  AgResearch

  2 shared

• M.J. Nicol

  Murdoch University

  2 shared

• Gregory Epps

  BuroHappold (United Kingdom)

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• SOM Research and Traveling Fellowship (2004)
• ACADIA international fabrication competition for the product…