Faculty

  • Shirin Bahmanyar

    Associate Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Nuclear dynamics during cell division and organismal development, mechanisms that divide organelle structure, defining functions of inner nuclear membrane proteins in the organization of single cells and complex tissues
  • Sean Barrett

    Professor; Physics and Applied Physics
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Experimental condensed matter physics; NMR method development
  • Julien Berro

    Associate Professor: Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry and Cell Biology
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Actin and cytoskeleton; clatherin mediated endocytosis; mathematical modeling combined with experiment; imaging
  • Joerg Bewersdorf

    Professor: Cell Biology, Biomedical Engineering, and Physics
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Super resolution imaging; nanoscopy
  • Marcus Bosenberg

    Professor; Dermatology, Pathology, and Immunobiology
    • Bioinformatics
    • Biological Circuits
    • Systems Biology
    Research Interests: Melanoma biology; soft tissue tumors
  • Stuart Campbell

    Associate Professor; Biomedical Engineering & Cellular and Molecular Physiology
    • Bioengineering
    • Computational Biology
    Research Interests: Understanding mechanisms that underlie genetics forms of heart disease using computational and experimental tools and approaches.
  • Hui Cao

    Professor; Applied Physics, Physics, and Electrical Engineering
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Biophotonics; Nanophotonics; Complex optical materials and phenomena
  • John Carlson

    Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
    • Biological Circuits
    • Systems Biology
    Research Interests: Molecular basis of olfaction, taste, and pheromone perception
  • Alicia Che

    Assistant Professor; Psychiatry
    • Biological Circuits
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Structure and function of cortical networks: neuronal circuits; optical imaging
  • Hattie Chung

    Assistant Professor; Cardiovascular Medicine and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    • Systems Biology
    Research Interests: We study the molecular basis of cellular heterogeneity and tissue organization in health and disease through the lens of systems biology by pioneering novel computational and experimental tools, with applications to cardiovascular disease and ovarian aging.
  • Damon Clark

    Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, Physics, and Neuroscience
    • Neuroscience
    Research Interests: Neuronal computation
  • Martina Dal Bello

    Assistant Professor; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
    • Bioinformatics
    • Computational Biology
    • Systems Biology
    Research Interests: research in the Dal Bello lab focuses on how microbes respond to and modify their environment, and how these feedback processes shape species interactions, assembly processes, and the function of microbial communities.
  • Caitlin Davis

    Assistant Professor; Chemistry
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Using time-resolved spectral imaging at multiple scales, from in vitro to single cell to whole organism, to make connections between molecular mechanisms and cellular function
  • Enrique de la Cruz

    Professor; Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Molecular motors, cytoskeleton, polymer mechanics
  • Allison Didychuk

    Assistant Professor; Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Herpesvirus transcription and viral genome packaging
  • Purushottam Dixit

    Assistant Professor; Biomedical Engineering
    • Bioinformatics
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    • +1 more
    Research Interests: Build machine learning methds that are rooted in statistical physics to analyze high quality high dimensional “omics” data from biological systems
  • Thierry Emonet

    Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and Physics
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    • Neuroscience
    • +1 more
    Research Interests: We combine theory and experiments to understand the computations organisms perform to navigate chemical environments. Bacteria: we analyze information processing in individual cells, the molecular basis of individuality, and how biological diversity benefits populations. Fruit flies: we examine how insects perform goal oriented olfactory navigation, and how they adapt decision-making strategies in real time as odor signal statistics and environmental conditions change
  • Rong Fan

    Professor; Biomedical Engineering
    • Bioinformatics
    • Biological Circuits
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    • +1 more
    Research Interests: Combining single-cell analysis technology and systems biology to study cell-cell communication and cellular heterogeneity in human cancers and the immune system
  • Paul Forscher

    Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Actin assembly; cytoskeletal protein dynamics; cellular motion; microscopy
  • Josh Gendron

    Associate Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
    • Biological Circuits
    Research Interests: How protein degradation controls the circadian clock in plants. Plant biology, circadian clock, light sensing, protein degradation, abiotic plant interactions, biological timing mechanisms, plant development.
  • Mark Gerstein

    Professor: Biomedical Informatics, Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, Computer Science, and Statistics & Data Science
    • Bioinformatics
    • Computational Biology
    Research Interests: Bioinformatics; biological database design, genomics; human genome annotation; gene expression analysis; data mining; macromolecular structure and function
  • Amir Haji-Akbari

    Assistant Professor; Chemical & Environmental Engineering
    • Computational Biology
    Research Interests: Our group uses techniques rooted in molecular thermodynamics and computational chemistry to study the thermodynamics, kinetics and mechanism of phase transitions. We are interested in phenomena characterized as rare events. We are currently pursuing three active areas of interest: (i) crystal nucleation, (ii) hindered transport of ions and solutes through nanoporous membranes and channels, (iii) protein dynamics, folding and aggregation.
  • Scott Holley

    Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
    • Bioinformatics
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    • +3 more
    Research Interests: The systems biology, biomechanics and molecular biophysics of early spinal column development
  • Valerie Horsley

    Associate Professor: Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and Dermatology
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Stem cells; wound healing; cellular mechanics
  • Joe Howard

    Professor; Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry and Physics
    • Computational Biology
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • Neuroscience
    • +2 more
    Research Interests: Microtubules and molecular motors. Branching morphogenesis of neurons. Motility of cilia and flagella. Nerve nets.
  • Jay Humphrey

    Professor; Biomedical Engineering
    • Bioengineering
    • Computational Biology
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: ascular mechanics; mechanobiology; design of tissue engineering constructs; computational modeling of vascular development, homeostasis, and disease
  • Farren Isaacs

    Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
    • Bioengineering
    • Bioinformatics
    • Biological Circuits
    • +2 more
    Research Interests: Synthetic Biology, Genome Engineering, Systems Biology, Bioengineering, Engineered biomaterials & RNAs
  • Erdem Karatekin

    Associate Professor; Cellular & Molecular Physiology and Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Membrane fusion and fission mechanisms, Cell membrane dynamics, Membrane trafficking, Optical tweezers, imaging, Electrophysiology
  • Jaehong Kim

    Professor; Chemical & Environmental Engineering
    • Bioengineering
    Research Interests: Antimicrobial/biocidal surface development and application of nanomaterials for water treatment
  • Megan King

    Associate Professor; Cell Biology and Molecular, Cellular & Development Biology
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Nuclear mechanics; DNA repair; chromatin, nuclear envelope and cytoskeletal interconnectedness and structure
  • Yuval Kluger

    Professor; Pathology
    • Bioinformatics
    Research Interests: Method development and analysis of genomic patters; cancer biomaker discovery; epigenetics
  • Anthony Koleske

    Professor; Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry
    • Biological Circuits
    • Neuroscience
    Research Interests: Cellular shape and motility; biochemical dissection of signaling pathways; regulation of normal and cancer cell migration; and formation, function and stability of neural connections
  • Aaron Kuan

    Assistant Professor; Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering
    • Bioinformatics
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    • +2 more
    Research Interests: Electron microscopy and X-ray imaging techniques to enable 3D imaging of neuronal circuits combined with behavior and functional imaging to reveal how circuit connectivity underlies brain activity and cognition.
  • Roy Lederman

    Assistant Professor; Statistics and Data Science
    • Bioinformatics
    • Computational Biology
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Cryo-EM; numerical analysis and signal processing; geometry of data; computational biology algorithms; mathematics of data science
  • Andre Levchenko

    Professor; Biomedical Engineering
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    Research Interests: Systems Biology; Signal Transduction and Cell-Cell Communication; Cell Decision Making; Microfluidics and Micro- and Nano-fabrication; Stem Cell Engineering
  • Liang Liang

    Assistant Professor; Neuroscience
    • Biological Circuits
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • Neuroscience
    Research Interests: Synaptic and neural circuit mechanisms underlying visual information processing; combining recording of neural activity in awake behaving animals, image processing, and computational modeling
  • Chenxiang Lin

    Associate Professor; Cell Biology and Biomedical Engineering
    • Bioengineering
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: DNA nanotechnology enabled molecular tools and biomimetic systems
  • Yimin Luo

    Assistant Professor; Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Regulated cell alignment and tissue organization are vital in health and disease. To systematically investigate how cells respond to patterns, we achieve precise control over their arrangement through molecularly defined scaffolds. We innovate a continuous imaging platform tracking thousands of cells over days. Leveraging reams of data, we develop a hybrid procedure that utilizes statistical learning approaches to extend the state-of-the-art physics models.
  • Christopher Lynn

    Assistant Professor; Physics
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    • Neuroscience
    • +1 more
    Research Interests: Understanding how structure and function emerge in complex living systems, particularly the brain.
  • Zongming Ma

    Professor; Statistics and Data Science
    • Bioinformatics
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Developing machine learning and statistical tools to gain biological insights from spatial and single-cell data
  • Benjamin Machta

    Assistant Professor; Physics
    • Bioinformatics
    Research Interests: Statistical physics of biological systems; critical points and phase transitions, membrane systems
  • Michael Mak

    Assistant Professor; Biomedical Engineering
    • Computational Biology
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    • Systems Biology
    Research Interests: Multiscale mechanobiology in cancer and development, from molecular to multicellular levels, integrating microfluidics, wet-lab experiments, and computational approaches.
  • Nikhil Malvankar

    Associate Professor; Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry
    • Bioengineering
    • Bioinformatics
    • Biological Circuits
    • +3 more
    Research Interests: We are developing electronic Imaging & Control of Microbial Functions, by studying how environmentally and clinically important microbes build & use hair-like “nanowires” to export electrons outside their cell body, during respiration, communication, and pathogenesis and by tuning nanowire conductivity using light, pressure, temperature, electromagnetic fields, and non-natural ‘click’ chemistry.
  • Harry McNamara

    Assistant Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
    • Bioengineering
    • Biological Circuits
    • Neuroscience
    • +1 more
    Research Interests: Synthetic developmental biology: measuring and controlling stem cells to understand how they self-organize multicellular structures in vitro (organoids, embryoids)
  • Kirstin Meyer

    Assistant Professor; Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
    • Bioengineering
    • Biological Circuits
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • +1 more
    Research Interests: We seek to understand molecular mechanisms of emergent gene regulatory behavior, with a focus on temporal information transmission, mechanosensing, and chromatin biophysics.
  • Kathryn Miller-Jensen

    Associate Professor; Biomedical Engineering and Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
    • Bioengineering
    • Systems Biology
    Research Interests: HIV latency; signaling pathways; high-throughput single cell analysis; computational, experimental and systems-level approaches
  • Andrew Miranker

    Professor; Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry and Chemical & Environmental Engineering
    • Bioengineering
    • Biological Circuits
    Research Interests: Protein self-assembly; protein folding and dynamics; amyloid
  • Simon Mochrie

    Professor; Physics and Applied Physics
    • Bioinformatics
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    • +2 more
    Research Interests: Quantitative microscopy and image analysis. Chromatin organization and dynamics. Nuclear envelope physics. Phase transitions of soft matter
  • Binyam Mogessie

    Assistant Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: The Mogessie lab studies cytoskeletal organization and function with a special focus on chromosome segregation in mammalian eggs and the molecular origins of female reproductive aging and infertility.
  • Michael Murrell

    Associate Professor; Biomedical Engineering and Physics
    • Bioengineering
    • Biological Circuits
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • +1 more
    Research Interests: Non-equilibrium thermodynamics, active matter, biophysics, synthetic biology, cytoskeletal mechanics.
  • Corey O'Hern

    Professor; Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Physics, Applied Physics and Graduate Program in Computational Biology & Bioinformatics
    • Computational Biology
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    • Systems Biology
    • +1 more
    Research Interests: Statistical mechanics of nonequilibrium systems; glass and jamming transitions in soft matter; computational biology; protein structure, interactions, and design.
  • Amir Pahlavan

    Assistant Professor; Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    Research Interests: Bacterial chemotaxis and biofilm formation in complex environments using both experiments and modeling.
  • Richard Prum

    Professor; Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
    • Bioengineering
    • Biological Circuits
    Research Interests: Avian feather evolution; structural color; avian color vision; avian phylogenetics and behavioral evolution
  • Anna Marie Pyle

    Professor; Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and Chemistry
    • Computational Biology
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: RNA remodeling enzymes; RNA tertiary structure; molecular virology; computational studies of RNA structure
  • Hesper Rego

    Associate Professor; Microbial Pathogenesis
    • Biological Circuits
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Imaging (including building microscopes), single-cell level experiments, mycobacterial infections, drivers of heterogeneity
  • Shreya Saxena

    Assistant Professor; Biomedical Engineering
    • Computational Biology
    • Neuroscience
    Research Interests: Investigating topics at the interface of statistical inference, recurrent neural networks, control theory, and neuroscience
  • Edward Stites

    Associate Professor; Laboratory Medicine & Pathology
    • Bioengineering
    • Bioinformatics
    • Biological Circuits
    • +2 more
    Research Interests: mathematical modeling, informed machine learning, cancer biology/disease biology, systems biology, synthetic biology
  • Xiaolei Su

    Assistant Professor; Cell Biology
    • Bioengineering
    • Biological Circuits
    • Imaging Biological Systems
    • +1 more
    Research Interests: Membranes, phase separation, and regulation of immune signaling; single molecule imaging and cell engineering
  • Alison Sweeney

    Associate Professor; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Physics
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Self-assembly and optical properties of molecular structures, biophysics, evolution of deep sea squid camouflage, combining theory with experiment
  • John Tsang

    Professor; Immunobiology and Biomedical Engineering
    • Bioengineering
    • Bioinformatics
    • Biological Circuits
    • +2 more
    Research Interests: Systems and quantitative immunology; human immunology; single cell biology; predicting and modeling immune responses; synthetic immunology: predictive engineering of immune cell trafficking and sensing; immune homeostasis maintenance and set point establishment mechanisms; integrating dynamical modeling and machine learning to understand emergent immune system behavior across temporal and spatial scales.
  • Paul Turner

    Professor; Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
    • Bioinformatics
    • Computational Biology
    • PEB Leadership
    Research Interests: Evolutionary genetics and genomics of microbes, experimental evolution, virus disease emergence and of virus evolvability, combining microbiology, computational biology, genomics, molecular biology and mathematical-modeling approaches
  • David van Dijk

    Assistant Professor; Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) and Computer Science
    • Bioinformatics
    • Computational Biology
    Research Interests: Machine Learning; Computational Biology; Genomics; Single-cell Analysis; Deep Learning; Computational Neuroscience; Machine Learning in biophysics and biochemistry
  • Madhusudhan Venkadesan

    Associate Professor; Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
    • Bioengineering
    • Computational Biology
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: biomechanics and control of animal movement; muscle rheology and biophysics; inverse problems in elasticity and morphoelasticity.
  • Min Wu

    Associate Professor; Cell Biology
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    • +1 more
    Research Interests: Single cell oscillations and travelling waves, membrane curvature, mitosis, cell size
  • C. Shan Xu

    Professor; Cellular & Molecular Physiology
    • Bioinformatics
    Research Interests: 3D volume electron microscopy, instrumentation development
  • Elsa Yan

    Professor; Chemistry
    • Biological Circuits
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Biomolecular interactions at interfaces; signal transduction across biomembranes; molecular mechanism of vision
  • Jing Yan

    Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
    • Bioengineering
    • Biological Circuits
    • Computational Biology
    • +3 more
    Research Interests: Imaging and modeling the developmental process of bacterial communities, characterizing and understanding the soft matter properties of bacterial biofilms, designing new bioinspired materials and surfaces
  • Yongli Zhang

    Professor; Cell Biology
    • Properties, Structure, Composition of Biological Systems
    Research Interests: Folding and assembly of proteins involved in membrane fusion; chromatin remodelers and ATP dependent translocases; single-molecule biophysics; optical tweezers
  • Steven Zucker

    Professor; Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering
    • Bioinformatics
    • Computational Biology
    • Neuroscience
    Research Interests: Computational vision, machine learning of neuroscience data, manifold inference and neural circuits.