Stefano Di Talia, PhD
Director
Professor, Department of Cell Biology
Stefano Di Talia is interested in elucidating quantitative principles of organization of multicellular. My group is interested in elucidating quantitative principles of organization of multicellular organisms with particular emphasis on embryonic cell cycle in Drosophila and tissue regeneration in zebrafish. We use interdisciplinary approaches integrating developmental biology with computational methods and theory to identify novel mechanisms that ensure that signaling dynamics and mechanical signals are integrated across a large range of spatiotemporal scales.
Amy Gladfelter, PhD
Co-director
Professor, Department of Cell Biology
The work in my group focuses on mechanisms of cell organization. We use a suite of quantitative approaches employed by an interdisciplinary team of biologists, engineers, physicists, and applied mathematicians. We combine cutting-edge imaging with analysis of genetically tractable live fungal and mammalian cells, mathematical and statistical modeling, and cell free reconstitution to study cytoplasm organization and cell shape sensing.
Mihai Azoitei, Ph.D
Associate Professor of Cell Biology
Proteins are the building blocks of life, and manipulating their function holds immense promise for uncovering fundamental biological processes and developing novel therapeutics. The Azoitei group harnesses recent advances in protein engineering methods to understand the mechanisms that control B cell activation, with the ultimate goal of developing highly effective vaccines.
Michel Bagnat, PhD
Nanaline Duke Distinguished Professor
Professor of Cell Biology
In our lab we investigate in zebrafish morphogenetic processes that build the vertebrate AP axis and are particularly interested in the role of large lysosomes and hydrostatic pressure. We use cell biological and genetic approaches that rely in quantitative microscopy. We are interested in combining these approached with physical and theoretical modeling.
Ryan Baugh, PhD
Professor of Biology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
We are interested in phenotypic plasticity and environmental adaptation. We use the roundworm C. elegans to study how animals respond to starvation with a focus on signaling networks and gene regulatory mechanisms that support fitness in fluctuating environments.
Michael Boyce PhD
Associate Professor of Biochemistry
The Boyce Lab studies cell signaling through protein glycosylation, the most abundant post-translational modification in nature. Current projects are focused on two specific areas: 1) Roles of the reversible, intracellular, monosaccharide modification O-GlcNAc in regulating cytoskeletal dynamics, secretory pathway trafficking and ubiquitin E3 ligases, and 2) The impact of enzymatic regulation of nucleotide-sugar pools on extracellular O-glycosylation in vivo.
Blanche Capel, PhD
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology
Professor of Cell Biology
Patrick Charbonneau, PhD
Professor of Chemistry
Professor Charbonneau studies soft matter and related biological systems. His work combines theory and simulation to understand the glass problem and microphase formation.
Emma Chory, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering
Our lab is broadly interested in developing biological tools, and open-sourced robotics platforms to accelerate the evolution of bio-therapeutics, and to better inform our understanding of a range of human diseases, particularly those driven by alterations to our epigenome.
Lab: www.chorylab.com
Veronica Ciocanel, PhD
Member of the Steering Committee
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
My work is in mathematical biology, and I am particularly interested in tackling questions about protein transport and organization in cells using mathematical and computational tools. Understanding how proteins move and organize inside cells is a fundamental question in cell and developmental biology, with implications to how cells function in a healthy way and how organisms properly develop. My work involves building techniques from dynamical systems, partial differential equations, stochastic processes, and data analysis, and working in close collaboration with experimental life scientists.
Lawrence David, PhD
Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
The David Lab works at the intersection of diet and health. We focus on developing new genomic techniques for measuring food intake, as well as how diet and the gut microbiome interact.
Lab: www.ladlab.org
Cagla Eroglu, PhD
Professor of Cell Biology and Neurobiology
HHMI Investigator at Duke University
My lab is seeking to elucidate new principles of brain development based on how cells called astrocytes guide the assembly and function of synaptic circuits underlying cognition. Eroglu’s team is developing new techniques to visualize astrocytes and study astrocyte-neuron interactions. Currently, they are working to identify novel molecular mechanisms by which astrocyte morphogenesis and maturation are coupled to synapse development and function. The team has revealed that a combined astrocyte-neuron chemo-affinity code regulates synaptic wiring. Eroglu’s work has implications for understanding autism and other disorders rooted in brain connectivity.
Don Fox, PhD
Professor of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology
Our lab applies quantitative imaging (among other approaches) to study of organ development and regeneration. We are particularly interested in two “genomic extremes.” One extreme is whole genome duplication (polyploidy), and the other is rarely used codons.
Lab: www.foxlabduke.com
Charles Gersbach, PhD
John W. Strohbehn Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Gersbach’s laboratory is focused on applying molecular and cellular engineering to applications in biotechnology, medicine, and basic science. In particular, his research aims to develop new methods to modify genome sequences, epigenomic regulation, and cellular gene networks in a precise and targeted manner. These new methods are then applied to correction of genetic diseases, directing cell differentiation, tissue regeneration, drug target discovery, or answering fundamental biological questions regarding gene regulation and genome structure and function. Examples of technologies used in his research include genome and epigenome editing, protein engineering, directed evolution, genetic reprogramming, and optogenetics.
Steve Haase PhD
Professor of Biology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Associate Professor in Medicine
The Haase lab investigates the structure and function of biological clock networks that control circadian cycles, cell division, and development in a variety of organisms. Genetics, genomics, synthetic and systems biology, as well as mathematical and statistical modeling approaches are used to identify components of clock networks and discover their systems-level functions. Developing quantitative tools and approaches in the S. cerevisiae model system, the Haase lab is now applying these approaches to understand the biology of human pathogens including malaria parasites and fungal pathogens.
Brenton Hoffman, PhD
James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering
A major goal of my research is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms cells utilize to detect, interpret, and respond to mechanical cues, such as internally-generated or externally-applied force as well as changes in the physical properties of the extracellular environment. This process is called mechanotransduction and is increasingly recognized as critically important in fundamental cellular processes like cell migration, physiological processes like wound healing, and pathophysiological processes like fibrosis. Specifically, my laboratory creates new tools and approaches to facilitate the discovery, understanding, and manipulation of the biophysical and biochemical processes that mediate mechanotransduction.
Craig Lowe, PhD
Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Craig Lowe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. His research interests are in understanding how traits and characteristics of humans, and other vertebrates, are encoded in their genomes. He is especially focused on adaptations and disease susceptibilities that are unique to humans.
Lab: www.vertgenlab.org
Akankshi Munjal, PhD
Member of the Steering Committee
Assistant Professor of Cell Biology
We study tissue morphogenesis using quantitative approaches in zebrafish embryos. Our long-term goal is to build an integrated framework with generalizable principles that account for the robust and reproducible shapes of organs
Lab: www.munjallab.com
Samira Musah, PhD
Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
Musah Laboratory for Stem Cell Engineering and Human Disease Modeling. The Musah Lab aims to understand how molecular and biophysical cues can function either synergistically or independently to guide organ development and function, and how these processes can be therapeutically harnessed to treat human disease. Research in our laboratory covers a range of interests from fundamental studies of stem cell and tissue differentiation to engineered devices for clinical diagnostics and therapeutics.
James Nolen, PhD
Professor of Mathematics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
I am a mathematician who works on stochastic processes and partial differential equations. I am interested in applying these analytical tools to understand problems in biology. Some of my recent work involves mathematical modeling of a signalling mechanism for polarity formation in yeast cells.
Eva Naumann, PhD
Assistant Professor of Neurobiology
The Naumann lab is generally interested in the dynamics of brain-scale neural circuit functions underlying sensorimotor transformations. We leverage the experimental advantages of the translucent larval zebrafish using behavioral monitoring, whole-brain volumetric calcium imaging, optogenetics, computational modeling, and neuromechanical simulations. With access to almost all cells, including neurons, in this model system, we aim to decode neural mechanisms underlying visual processing and, more recently, gut-to-brain communication.
Terrence Oas, PhD
Professor of Biochemistry
I use statistical thermodynamics to study biological mechanisms such as protein folding, binding-coupled conformational change and multivalent receptor binding to multivalent ligands. Systems of interest include pentavalent Staphylococcal protein A, RNase P protein, HIV-TAR and monomeric
Masayuki Onishi, PhD.
Assistant Professor of Biology
The Onishi lab is interested in the molecular details and evolution of cell division and its coordination with organelle segregation. The lab’s current focus is on elucidating how the unicellular model alga Chlamydomonas forms an animal-like cleavage furrow without a canonical contractile actomyosin ring, and how this process is coordinated with the division of the chloroplast, an organelle that emerged as a bacterial endosymbiont.
Ken Poss , PhD
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Regenerative Biology
Regeneration imaging, genetics, and genomics
Amanda Randles, PhD
Alfred Winborne and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences
The Randles Lab is dedicated to applying innovative computational methods to advance the frontiers of biomedical research, gain new insights into complex biological systems, and to improve human health. We are passionate about transforming the future of health using massively parallel, personalized, computational simulations of the circulatory system. In particular, we are developing new technologies to enhance the spatial and temporal domains that can be captured in high fidelity fluid-structure-interaction simulations through efficient use of some of the world's biggest supercomputers.
Mike Reed, PhD
Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Mathematics
Arnaldo Carreira Rosario, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biology
Our lab investigates how the nervous system of an animal becomes active during development, and how this initial activity shapes nervous system wiring and function. We combine imaging of neural activity in the intact fruit fly embryo, behavioral assays, computational analysis, and advanced genetics to gain insight from the organismal level to the molecular level.
Michael Rubinstein, PhD
Aleksandar S. Vesic Distinguished Professor
Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Pratt School of Engineering
My research is in the field of soft matter physics. In the area of quantitative living systems I am currently involved in two main projects:
(i) the structure and function of the airway surface layer of lungs in health and disease consisting of two layers - periciliary layer containing dense brush of mucin glycoproteins and the mucus layer the properties of which are dominated by the adsorbed biomolecules at the air surface;
(ii) the active loop extrusion dynamics of chromatin by cohesins during interphase forces it into dense conformation with anomalously high fractal dimension of four. This allows gene promoters and their regulatory elements to frequently contact each other within topologically associated domains (TADs) while suppressing spatial overlap between different TADs and significantly suppressing entanglements.
Christoph Schmidt, PhD
Member of the Steering Commitee
Professor of Physics
The Schmidt group works at the interface between soft condensed matter physics and biophysics. We use approaches and tools from statistical physics, polymer physics, and condensed matter physics to study the mechanics and dynamics of living systems on many scales, from single molecules, via biomacromolecular assemblies such as cytoskeletal filaments, to bacteria and eukaryotic cells and tissues. A strong recent interest lies in the non-equilibrium statistical physics of “active matter” and on mechanosensory machineries in organisms all the way from bacteria to whole Drosophila larvae. Experimental approaches include advanced light and fluorescence microscopy, optical trapping, atomic force microscopy, micro-, and macrorheology. We collaborate extensively with groups in theoretical physics as well as in biology, engineering, and the medical school.
Dave Sherwood, PhD
Jerry G. and Patricia Crawford Hubbard Professor Biology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Biology
The Sherwood lab studies cell-extracellular matrix interactions primarily using the C. elegans models system. Specific areas of study include elucidating dynamic and biophysical matrix properties, such as how extracellular matrix grows, stretches, connects tissues together, and changes during aging. The lab also examines how extracellular matrix regulates stem cell niche function, cell invasion, and tissue shaping.
Gustavo Silva, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biology
Our lab investigates the underlying mechanisms by which gene expression is regulated at the transcriptional and translational levels in response to stress. We are also very interested in understanding how the small protein modifier ubiquitin controls protein synthesis and degradation during stress, which when dysregulated, can be the causation of several neurodegenerative diseases. Our lab uses an array of cellular and molecular biology tools, proteomics, structural biology, and next generation sequencing to tackle these questions.
Rohit Singh, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
Dr. Singh's research interests lie in computational biology, with a focus on leveraging machine learning for in-depth analysis of cellular systems and enhancing drug discovery efficacy. His laboratory's primary research directions include the application of single-cell genomics and large language models to dissect disease mechanisms, understand biomolecular interactions, and discover novel drug targets and compounds.
Lab: singhlab.net
Lucia Strader, PhD
Professor of Biology
Associate Professor of Cell Biology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
The Strader Lab focuses on how plants integrate environmental cues to drive plant growth and development through the plant hormone auxin. Auxin - a critical plant hormone - controls both cell division and cell expansion and thereby orchestrates many developmental events and environmental responses. Understanding the molecular details of how auxin ‘works’ will reveal strategies plants use to alter growth in response to environmental stimuli.
Debby Silver, PhD
Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Our work investigates genetic and cell biological mechanisms underlying brain development. We use extensive imaging approaches both in vivo and in vitro to understand how cells acquire fates and interact.
Beth Sullivan, PhD
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor
Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Research in the Sullivan Lab is focused on chromosome organization, with a specific emphasis on the genomics and epigenetics of the chromosomal locus called the centromere. The centromere is a specialized chromosomal site involved in chromosome architecture and movement, and when defective, is linked to cancer, birth defects, and infertility.
Purushothama Tata, PhD
Associate Professor of Cell Biology
Tata lab work focuses on understanding the principles of spatial organization in cellular ensembles and to decode the molecular cues driving cell state dynamics during regeneration. We use live imaging, single cell profiling and organoid models to investigate these questions.
Lab: thetatalab.com
David Tobin, PhD
Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
The Tobin laboratory uses high-resolution imaging approaches in explant and whole animal models to probe and understand host-pathogen interactions. We are particularly focused on how pathogenic mycobacteria, including those that cause tuberculosis, manipulate the host immune system to survive, replicate and transmit.
Dong Yan, PhD
Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Our research focuses on understanding mechanisms underlying neuronal development, regeneration, and degeneration. We use a free-living tiny roundworm, called Caenorhabditis elegans, as a model. The defined cell lineage, completely mapped connectome and rapid life cycle of this organism greatly facilitate investigating nervous system at the subcellular resolution. Using cutting edge laser axotomy, live imaging, and genetic and genome editing approaches, we address questions related to neurons and glia in development and aging.
Lingchong You
Member Steering Committee
James L. Meriam Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Director, Center for Quantitative Biodesign
The You lab uses a combination of mathematical modeling, machine learning, and quantitative experiments to elucidate principles underlying the dynamics of microbial communities in time and space and to control these dynamics for applications in computation, engineering, and medicine.
Zhao Zhang, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
ZZ Lab investigates the impact and regulation of transposons and circular DNA, which bring a layer of genome dynamics during animal development and turmorigenesis.
Lab: thezzlab.com
