Upadhyaya Lab
Our laboratory aims to understand how cellular mechanics and physical forces enable a cell to sense and respond to its physical environment. We are particularly interested in the regulation of the biochemical signaling function in cells during the immune response, cancer and development. We combine quantitative imaging, computational analysis and approaches from soft condensed matter with genetic manipulation and modern cell biology to uncover how cellular forces are linked with signal transduction.
Losert Lab
Our research is focused on emergent dynamical properties of Complex Systems, i.e. systems with many dynamically interacting units, at the convergence of physics, materials science, and biology. A special focus is on applications to cancer biology.
Papoian Lab
We are a theoretical physical chemistry group in the Department of Chemistry and Bochemistry. We use advanced computational methods to study biological processes at multiple scales, from single protein functional dynamics and chromatin folding and stability to cell-level processes, such as stochastic signal transduction and regulation of cell motility.
Girvan Networks Lab
The Girvan lab operates at the intersection of statistical physics, nonlinear dynamics, and computer science and has applications to social, biological, and technological systems. More specifically, our work focuses on complex networks and often falls within the fields of computational biology and sociophysics. While some of the research is purely theoretical, Girvan has become increasingly involved in using empirical data to inform and validate mathematical models.
Jarzynski Lab
The Jarzynski Lab focuses on statistical mechanics and thermodynamics at the molecular level, with a particular emphasis on far-from-equilibrium phenomena. We have worked on topics that include the application of statistical mechanics to problems of biophysical interest; the analysis of artificial molecular machines; the development of efficient numerical schemes for estimating thermodynamic properties of complex systems; the relationship between thermodynamics and information processing. We also have interests in dynamical systems, quantum thermodynamics, and quantum and classical shortcuts to adiabaticity.
Ott Lab
Professor Ott's current research is on the basic theory and applications of nonlinear dynamics. Some of his current research projects are in wave chaos, dynamics on large interconnected networks, chaotic dynamics of fluids, and weather prediction.
Sukharev Lab
The Sukharev lab focuses on bacterial mechanosensitive channels MscL and MscS, which function as osmolyte release valves in prokaryotes. We are interested in understanding the intrinsic mechanisms of mechanosensitive ion channels, the primary receptor molecules that convert mechanical forces into electrical or chemical signals in cells. Mechanosensitive channels are diverse and may include several unrelated groups of membrane proteins.
Tiwary Lab
The Tiwary lab does inter-disciplinary theoretical and computational research to model and predict thermodynamics, dynamics and their interplay in complex real-world systems, relevant to biophysical, chemical and materials sciences. A common theme across these diverse systems is that many of these are plagued with hard to model rare events. To tackle these, we develop and use theoretical and computational tools drawing primarily from statistical mechanics, information theory and machine learning.
Weitz Lab
Our Quantitative Viral Dynamics research group explores how viral infections transform the fate of cells, populations, and ecosystems. Primarily theoretical/computational in nature, our work utilizes the tools of nonlinear dynamics, stochastic processes, and large-scale data analysis to bridge the gap between models, mechanisms and measurements of virus impacts in both ecological and infectious disease settings.