Faculty Mentors

Focuses on dissolving barriers between endogenous biochemical signals and exogenous soft materials for the fabrication of smart devices. They aim to revisit unsolved biomedical problems by integrating structurally dynamic chemistries and biomaterials into autonomous sense-response-feedback platforms.

Human stem cell research; Molecular mechanisms of stem cell differentiation; Derivation of ocular cells from stem cells; Soft tissue regeneration.

Molecular mechanisms of self/non-self recognition in non-vertebrates; characterization of stem cells and development process underlying regeneration and aging

Dr. Dewey's lab aims to combine biomaterials with extracellular vesicles for skeletal repair and disease treatment, including broader impacts in marine biology.

Develops single-cell sequencing technologies to study how chemical and mechanical cues regulate cell-to-cell variability in the epigenome.

Engineering ensembles of molecular motors and cytoskeletal filaments.

Uses a combination of fluid mechanics and soft matter physics to develop new microfluidic tools and study how fluid-structure interactions control biological and bio-inspired microflows.

Developing and employing protocols for correlative light and electron cryogenic microscopy and in situ cellular tomography.

Uses Theory, Experiment, Simulation To ideas, and gain insights into the evolution of patterns in complex systems. He also uses data-driven methods to learn the underlying physical laws of these complex systems.

Uses theory and simulations to understand the emergent behavior of active and living matter.

The Mills lab is focused on the study and engineering of protein assemblies to address challenges in plastic waste remediation, biological liquid-liquid phase separation, and oral vaccine development. Leveraging combined expertise in protein engineering, soft matter, and synthetic biology, we aim to engineer microbial and biomolecular solutions to pressing global challenges that are low-cost and accessible.

Explores the central question in neurobiology of how animal behavior and decision making are controlled by the environment.

Studies cell behaviors such as recovery from the brink of apoptotic cell death, cell cannibalism, collective cell migration, and establishment of new connections after migration.

Uses high resolution live imaging, synthetic biology and biochemistry to figure out when and where signaling molecules are activated to make these essential decisions.

Engineers molecular reporters for noninvasively imaging living systems in previously impossible ways - for example, spying on neural activity with brain-wide coverage in vertebrates and locating deep-seated infections and tumors in vivo.

Works at the intersection of materials science, physics, chemistry, and biology, and aims to understand interfacial phenomena and energy-dissipation at the interfaces of soft materials.

In-vivo molecular measurements, anyone?

Mechanobiology metrologies integrating quantitative imaging, biophysical, and biomolecular assays to probe the role of mechanics in cell signaling in health and disease.

We investigate DNA repair mechanisms and use this knowledge to improve gene editing.

Studies molecular biophysics, particularly by building and applying high-resolution single-molecule manipulation instruments capable of mechanical and elastic measurement of biopolymer and motor protein behavior.

Develops 3D hydrogel cell culture platforms to mimic mechanical, structural, and compositional elements of native extracellular matrices and uses these to investigate how cells sense and respond to their environment

Uses ideas and concepts from physics, computer science, and mathematics to ask how embryos get in shape, and how organs function

Focuses on the development and application of innovative new computational, artificial intelligence, and data science tools to bridge information between the atomic and cellular scales, covering more than six orders of magnitude from Ångstroms to tens of microns.

Combines tools from Biology, Engineering, and Physics to understand the cell’s perceptual field.

Studies how biological systems enact control, make decisions and perform computation.