Faculty Labs and Research

The Slavov Lab studies Ribosome-mediated translational regulation, and single-cell proteomics by mass-spectrometry

This rearch group is interested in understanding collective and emergent behavior in out-of-equilibrium and disordered systems. The research employs methods in theoretical and computation condensed matter physics and applies to a wide range of biological and non-biological systems.

This group studies biomedical optics and non-invasive imaging, rare cell detection and tracking in the body, ultrafast time-domain diffuse optical imaging, image reconstruction and biomedical signal processing.

This lab combines state-of-the-art experimental and numerical methods to quantify the health impacts of inhaled toxins (e.g. e-cigs) or to optimize inhaled therapeutics.

Professor Ondrechen’s research group spans the areas of theoretical and computational chemistry, computational biology, bioinformatics, protein design, and drug discovery. Areas of interest include functional genomics – predicting the biochemical functional roles of gene products (proteins), protein engineering, providing computational guidance for drug discovery, and understanding the fundamental basis for enzyme catalysis.

Professor Sage’s research is motivated by a fascination with the physical basis for the function of proteins. He develops and applies novel spectroscopic approaches to understand the structure, dynamics, and function of biological macromolecules.

Professor Spring’s group bridges biophysics, biomedical optics and cancer biology to selectively target micrometastases left behind by standard therapies that limit our ability to cure many cancers.

Research in this lab is aimed at understanding the basic brain functions and principles of synaptic connectivity in the cerebral cortex through the quantitative analysis of neuron morphology.

Studies of the neurophysiology of C. elegans from its birth to adulthood, which reveals the detailed relationship between the developing nervous system and the animal behavior. Advanced neurotechnology and microscopy techniques are used to measure large populations of neurons in freely behaving animals, while simultaneously recording their movements and motor decisions.

Professor Whitford’s research probes the energetic properties of biomolecular dynamics through a combination of theoretical modeling and high-performance computing (HPC). His investigations of biomolecular order-disorder transitions and energy transduction processes span from protein and ribonucleic acid folding, to large-scale conformational rearrangements in molecular machines.

The Asthagiri lab investigates how cancer cells acquire the ability to invade their surroundings, a key early step in the lethal progression to metastasis. They seek to identify robust therapeutic strategies to target cancer cells whose heterogeneity and plasticity make them a “moving target.”

The Auguste lab engineers solutions to address current challenges in medicine. They design, synthesize, and evaluate new biomaterials that change the way we deliver drugs and cells.