Microscopy is fundamental to biology, chemistry, and material science. In my prior work, we developed microscopes that can rapidly image specimens ranging from single molecules to whole organisms. The rates at which these, and other modern instruments, acquire data has now vastly outpaced our ability to interpret and act upon this information. This is especially … Continued
My laboratory develops molecular technologies to enable the imaging and control of cellular function deep inside living organisms. Such technologies are needed to study basic biological processes within the context of intact tissues and organs, and to facilitate the development of cellular diagnostic and therapeutic agents. To accomplish these goals, my lab engineers proteins and … Continued
My lab is devoted to developing and applying novel technologies for holistic understanding of large-scale complex biological systems. Specifically, in addition to CLARITY (Nature, 2013) that I co-invented at Stanford, we have developed a host of methods (SWITCH [Cell, 2015], stochastic electrotransport [PNAS, 2015], MAP [Nature Biotechnology, 2016]) that may enable identification of multi-scale functional … Continued
Soft materials are a broad class of condensed matter, which has important technological applications and forms the basis of most biological systems. I study experimental soft matter physics, with a special focus on the emergent flow behaviors of soft materials and their associated mesoscopic structures. My research group employs optical imaging techniques including confocal microscopy, … Continued
My research program aims to elucidate design principles of biological networks inside and between cells. A major emphasis is on the development and use of quantitative methods to design, analyze, or engineer biological networks for both practical applications and to deduce fundamental biological insights. We pioneered the use of cell-cell communication to program bacterial dynamics … Continued
My research and teaching interests are in reaction engineering, catalysis, separations, transport phenomena, process and product design with emphasis on energy efficiency and process intensification. Accomplishments include development of hierarchical mesoporous zeolite catalysts, oriented molecular sieve films, molecular sieve/polymer nanocomposites for membrane applications, crystal structure determination of adsorbents, that are now used in a commercial … Continued
Research endeavors in my laboratory are motivated by the intriguing properties of surfaces and thin films. Over the years, our group has focused on a broad range of topics spanning from fundamental studies of cold-welding between rough metallic surfaces to the design of novel biological membrane structures for use in in-vitro fertilization. What unites our … Continued
Genetic engineering is undergoing a revolution, where next-generation technologies for DNA and host manipulation are enabling larger and more ambitious projects in biotechnology. Automated DNA synthesis has advanced to where it is routine to order sequences >100,000bp where every base is user-specified, the turnaround time is several weeks, and the cost is rapidly declining. Recently, … Continued
My research focuses on understanding and designing the properties of equilibrium and nonequilibrium forms of soft matter—including colloidal dispersions and assemblies, complex fluids, macromolecular solutions, glassy solids, and particle packings—using principles from statistical mechanics, optimization, and data science.
My current research interests include non-Newtonian fluid mechanics (especially in the area of elastic instabilities, and turbulent drag reduction), nonequilibrium polymer statistical dynamics (focusing on single molecules studies of DNA), and suspension mechanics (particularly particles in viscoelastic fluids and particles/vesicles/capsules in microfluidics).