Faculty Labs and Research

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 ADDRES Lab studies interactions between materials and biological systems, with a current focus on the intestinal environment, via development of theoretical and tissue-engineered cell culture models.

This research focuses on the intersectionality between biomaterials, electronics, nerves, and the heart.

The Lee-Parsons Laboratory applies metabolic engineering principles and methodologies to improve the production of important compounds (i.e., critical plant-derived pharmaceuticals or biofuels from plant cell and tissue cultures and microalgae cultures.

The Lotterhos Lab at Northeastern Marine Science Center seeks to understand how climate has shaped marine biodiversity and how a now rapidly changing climate will affect biodiversity in the future.

The Epstein Lab works on microbial discovery in the environment and human microbiome. They uncover novel microbial life forms by inventing novel cultivation strategies that depart from conventional wisdom and provide access to the greatest part of microbial diversity: unexplored species missed in the past.

The Lewis Lab studies persister cells responsible for tolerance to antibiotics, uncultured bacteria of the environment and the microbiome, and works on drug discovery.

The O’Doherty Group research interests broadly encompass the discipline of organic synthesis toward designing, synthesizing and testing new anticancer, antibacterial and antiviral agents. 

The research program in the Laboratory for Neglected Disease Drug Discovery focuses on those areas of research that will impact on treatment of human disease and on areas that will expedite the drug discovery process.