People
Thomas Gregor
Professor of Physics and member of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics
I am interested in providing quantitative descriptions of the rich qualitative phenomena of complex biological systems to understand how they derive from general principles. I work at the interface between physics and biology, often marrying theory and experiment. Clearly, there is something very fundamental that distinguishes inanimate from living systems, and what drives my group’s research is the belief that the same physical laws must govern both classes of systems. Life magically emerges within this framework, leading us to new areas of physics, which we seek to uncover. To make progress we pursue a physics-style approach, combining state-of-the-art experimental techniques, often developing new kinds of measurements in living systems, with sophisticated data analysis methods that allow for stringent tests of simple models and theory.
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1999 Physics Master (Geneva University, Switzerland)
2001 Chemistry Master (Princeton University)
2005 Ph.D. Biophysics (Princeton University)
2006-09 JSPS Fellow (Tokyo University, Japan)
2009 Assistant Professor of Physics (Princeton University)
2015 Associate Professor of Physics (Princeton University)
2019 Professor of Physics (Princeton University)
Some more background on my path can be found here:
The Scientist Portrait (2013)
Interview (2015)
Quanta Magazine (2019)
Research Associates
Kevin Keomanee-Dizon
Dicke Fellow and CPBF Fellow.
My graduate research involved the development of several microscope technologies: light sheet, multiphoton, super-resolution, hyperspectral, and light field. These imaging technologies have a broad range of applications that span many levels of organization, from the dynamics of single molecules to whole-brain activity in behaving animals. Here in the lab, I continue to develop new optical tools, with an eye toward using these tools to study the basic physical principles that govern gene expression. I’d like to understand how remarkably precise patterns of multicellular organization arise from spatially complex, rapidly evolving molecular events, as well as how fluctuations and long-range DNA interactions place physical limits on information flow and reliable cellular decision-making.
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Miloš Nikolič
Postdoctoral Research Associate
I am fascinated by the biophysics of cells across length scales, from the physics of molecular-scale processes that drive individual cells, to the mechanisms by which those cells interpret internal and external signals to form highly organized tissues and organisms. To study this, I have focused on optimizing and applying live-imaging methods that probe a range of physical parameters across several length scales. In my PhD work, I focused on the experimental investigation of biomechanics of mammalian cells. In the Laboratory for the Physics of Life, I use cutting edge quantitative imaging methods to study the multicellular pattern formation in the fruit fly embryo as a model for complex developmental programs. By measuring highly dynamic biological and physical parameters I hope to uncover the underlying physical principles that govern cell fate in whole, developing organisms.
Sergey Ryabichko
Postdoctoral Research Associate
I am fascinated how particular sequences of nucleotides comprise binding sites for certain transcription factors that interact with them precisely in space and time. Those sequences are known as cis-regulatory elements. The frequency and duration of such interactions might lead to or be a consequence of a dynamic shaping of the genomic structure and changes in physical distances between the elements. Physical distances have some correlation with genomic distances, but not always, as multiple components are at play. Those components have different physicochemical properties, and my ambition is to uncover mechanisms of gene transcription regulation through the prism of quantification of physical parameters of the four-dimensional organization of the genome.
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Rahul Munshi
Postdoctoral Research Associate/CPBF Fellow
During my Ph.D. in Physics, I was introduced to probing and perturbing molecular biological processes, giving rise to quantifiable, correlated outcomes at the organismal level. I have ever since been fascinated by how precision arises out of the inherently stochastic processes of life. My long-term goal is to decipher the common rules of biological information dissemination, processing, and storage. I joined the Gregor lab to build on the strong foundation the group has developed on the biophysical and technical aspects of studying Drosophila embryos as a biological system for physics-style investigation. I seek to gain a better understanding of the temporal dynamics of genetic interactions in live embryos, and their role in determining the precision of pattern formation. I am also interested in understanding the functional aspects of chromatin dynamics and identify how molecular events induce conformational modifications on chromatin architecture, and how that influences transcription during the highly dynamic early developmental stages.
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Michal Levo
Postdoctoral Research Associate/EMBO Fellow/HFSP Fellow
The proper progression of development and differentiation relies on complex spatiotemporal regulation of gene expression. This is beautifully demonstrated in the early Drosophila embryo, where, within 2-3 hours, gene expression patterns restricted in time and space, give rise to a blueprint of the adult fly. Complementing my background in high-throughput genomic approaches, I am interested in developing and employing live-imaging technics established in the Gregor lab. By coupling these with genome editing, and quantitative analysis, I hope to capture dynamic properties of gene expression regulation and advance our mechanistic understanding; bridging the gap between microscopic processes and pattern formation.
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Benjamin Zoller
Postdoctoral Research Associate/SNF Fellow
Across the tree of life, it is extraordinary that the development of entire organisms occurs at remarkably high precision given that the underlying molecular processes are inherently noisy. The embryo of the fruit fly presents the ideal system to tackle the consequences of transcriptional noise on cell fate organization during development. I am interested in understanding how precise macro-scale expression patterns emerge from discontinuous transcription at individual nuclei and explore the physical limits of the patterning system in the Drosophila embryo. During my Ph.D., I focused on the stochastic transcriptional kinetics of mammalian genes and its impact on the noise. I developed biophysically-rooted methods to infer transcriptional kinetics from time-lapse measurements of short-lived bioluminescent reporters in single cells. The purpose of my current research is to characterize the transcriptional dynamics of patterning genes from the imaging of single nuclei and elucidate the regulatory mechanisms that permit high precision patterning in early Drosophila embryos.
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Graduate Students
Po-Ta Chen
QCB Graduate Student, Princeton University
I have a broad interest in understanding gene regulation at different scales. In my current study, I’ve been focusing on optimizing fluorescent microscopy to measure important physical parameters of transcription processes from living Drosophila embryos. I aim to build up a multiscale model that links upstream transcription activator dynamics to the downstream promoter and RNA Pol II activities, hoping to establish a quantitative ground toward understanding more complicated phenomena such as gene regulatory networks or pattern formation in developmental systems.
Lev Barinov
Molecular Biology Graduate Student, Princeton University
I am a Ph.D. student in Molecular Biology and part of the Rutgers RWMS/Princeton MD/Ph.D. program. I earned my undergraduate degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University with a focus on digital signal processing and machine learning. I’ve remained interested in being able to model and understand complex systems to elucidate their underlying properties and mechanisms. In the Gregor lab, my primary focus has been on characterizing the spatiotemporal architecture of the genome and its relevance to biological function.
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Fernando Rossine
QCB Graduate Student, Princeton University
Fernando is interested in how population structure conditions the evolution of decision-making processes. In the search for answers, he has been probing the surprisingly intellectual amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. He has earned both his Bachelor’s degree in Biology and his Master’s degree in Ecology from the University of São Paulo. His Master’s thesis explored through computational approaches the relation between spatial patterning and speciation rates.
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