TUFTS UNIVERSITY - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of the Founding

Job Titles:

• Research Scientist
• Affiliate Research Scientist

Alexis Pietak is a biophysicist and research scientist whose work focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying the creation of complex, functional patterns in living systems. Dr. Pietak has a PhD in physics (2005), and dual degrees in engineering physics (2000) and biochemistry (2001) from Queen's University in Canada, along with more than a decade of experience in theoretical and experimental research at various universities in Canada and New Zealand. Since 2008, Dr. Pietak has used her multidisciplinary math, physics, and biology experience to develop useful and inventive computational models applicable to patterning processes happening in both in vitro culture plates and bioreactors, as well as the complex environment of living systems.

Job Titles:

• Affiliate Research Scientist

Job Titles:

• Assistant Professor

Benjamin E. Wolfe, Ph.D. received a B.Sc. in 2003 from Cornell University, a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University in 2011, was a postdoctoral researcher in the FAS Center for Systems Biology from 2010-2014. Dr. Benjamin Wolfe is an assistant professor of microbiology in the Department of Biology at Tufts University. He received a B.Sc. in 2003 from Cornell University, a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University in 2011, was a postdoctoral researcher in the FAS Center for Systems Biology from 2010-2014. Benjamin established his lab at Tufts in 2014. His lab uses model systems to determine the ecological and evolutionary processes that shape the diversity and function of microbiomes. Projects integrate experimental evolution, metagenomics, comparative genomics, genome engineering, and in situ community reconstructions. Basic principles of microbial community assembly determined in the tractable microbiomes used in the Wolfe lab can help guide the design and manipulation of more complex microbial communities in industry, medicine, and nature.

Dr. Fields received his B.S. in Physics (1977) from Louisiana State University and his Ph.D. in Philosophy (1985) from the University of Colorado. Dr. Chris Fields is a biophysicist who has collaborated with Dr. Michael Levin and other members of the Allen Discovery Center since 2014. He is primarily interested in developing scale-free models, based on quantum information theory and abstract model of computation, that characterize the abilities of living systems to recognize objects in their environments, localize them in space and time, and interact with them as persistent individuals.

Dr. Tabin was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2007. Among his many honors, he received the National Academy of Sciences Award in 1999; the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology in 2008; elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2010; received the Conklin Medal from the Society for Developmental Biology in 2012, received a ScD honoris causa degree from Union College, Schenectady, New York; asked to present the Harvey Lecture in 2012, and was elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London in 2014. Cliff Tabin entered MIT as a graduate student in Biology in 1976. This was an extremely fortuitous time and place to begin a career in molecular biology, as the ability to create recombinant DNA had been invented the previous year. He carried out his thesis work studying oncogenes with Bob Weinberg. A fundamental question at that time was to understand the molecular difference between oncogenically activated oncongenes and their normal cellular progenitors. The first cloned oncogene was an activated version of a gene called ras isolated from a bladder carcinoma. Dr. Tabin's work identified a single amino acid change in the coding region of this gene as being the crucial oncogenic mutation; the first time the nature of a mutation involved in tumorgenesis was known. As a postdoc, Dr. Tabin was drawn to the area of vertebrate embryology. After a year and a half of training as a postdoctoral fellow with Doug Melton at Harvard University, Dr. Tabin moved to an independent postdoctoral position at Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Molecular Biology. There he initiated work on the molecular biology of limb development, which has continued to be one of the areas of focus of his laboratory at Harvard Medical School where he has been on the faculty in the Department of Genetics since 1989. He has been a Full Professor since 1997 and was appointed Chairman of the Department in January 2007. Dr. Tabin was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2007. Among his many honors, he received the National Academy of Sciences Award in 1999; the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology in 2008; elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2010; received the Conklin Medal from the Society for Developmental Biology in 2012, received a ScD honoris causa degree from Union College, Schenectady, New York; asked to present the Harvey Lecture in 2012, and was elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London in 2014. The common theme of Dr. Tabin's research investigations has been an attempt to understand "pattern formation", how the organization of an embryo arises during its development. His efforts are responsible for our current understanding of such embryological questions as why the leg is different in form from the arm, and why the heart is on the left and not the right, as well as evolutionary questions such as understanding the genetic basis for the differences in the shapes of the beaks of different species of Darwin's Finches in the Galapagos Islands. In addition to his research program, Dr. Tabin has had a major involvement in education efforts at Harvard Medical School, teaching embryology and genetics to both the medical students and the graduate students. He has also played a leadership role in recent wide-ranging medical education reform at Harvard. Additionally Dr. Tabin has utilized his expertise in this area to assist the development of a new medical school in Nepal.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Founding
• Professor of Engineering

David Kaplan received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University and the State University at Syracuse. His research focus is on biopolymer engineering to understand structure-function relationships, with emphasis on studies related to self-assembly, biomaterials engineering and regenerative medicine. David Kaplan is the Stern Family Endowed Professor of Engineering at Tufts University and a Distinguished University Professor. He is Professor & Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and also holds faculty appointments in the School of Medicine, Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University and the State University at Syracuse. His research focus is on biopolymer engineering to understand structure-function relationships, with emphasis on studies related to self-assembly, biomaterials engineering and regenerative medicine. Since 2004 he has directed the NIH P41 Tissue Engineering Resource Center (TERC) that involves Tufts University and Columbia University. He has published over 700 peer reviewed papers. The lab has pioneered the study of silk-based biomaterials in regenerative medicine, from fundamental studies of the biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysical features to their impact on stem cell functions, complex tissue formation and medical device formation. Studies are also focused on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine with the use of complex 3D tissue co-culture systems to establish and study a range of tissues. He is the editor-in-chief of ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering and serves on many other editorial boards and programs for journals and universities. He has received a number of awards for teaching, was Elected Fellow American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and received the Society for Biomaterials Clemson Award for contributions to the literature.

Job Titles:

• Staff Scientist

Job Titles:

• Senior Scientist in the Allen Discovery Center

Douglas Blackiston is a Senior Scientist in the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, and a visiting scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard, where his research program examines the relationship between developmental events and organism level behaviors. His work encompasses many diverse questions and models, from the ability of memory to survive metamorphosis in moths and butterflies, to the capacity of transplanted eyes to restore vision in blind vertebrates. As part of the team that created computer-designed organisms, he envisioned and developed the biological components of the work, including the techniques, protocols, and methods to bring the simulated designs to life. He is a Cozzarelli prize recipient, and his research has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, BBC World News, the Guardian, and as exhibits in the Design Museum of London, the CCCB, and the Copernicus Science Centre.

Job Titles:

• Principal Investigator, Department of Life Sciences

Dr. Giovanni Sena is a Lecturer and Principal Investigator, Department of Life Sciences, at Imperial College London. Giovanni Sena earned a laurea (B.Sc./M.Phys. equivalent) in theoretical physics at the University of Milan (Italy), with a special focus on quantum field theory. After a brief internship at the Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research in Milan, he moved to New York City, where he attended graduate school at New York University and earned a Ph.D. in molecular genetics studying pattern formation in the root of Arabidopsis thaliana. During his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Prof. Philip Benfey, he contributed to the discovery of one of the first transcription factors (SHR, SHORT-ROOT) known to translocate between tissues in plants. He completed his post-doctoral training in the laboratories of Prof. Stan Leibler at The Rockefeller University and Prof. Ken Birnbaum at New York University, both in New York City. In that period, Dr. Sena led the development of novel live imaging methods specifically adapted for prolonged observations at high spatial and temporal resolution of growing plant roots. He also developed new methods for studying root regeneration, which led to the unexpected discovery of the limited role of stem cells in that process. Dr. Sena joined Imperial College London in 2012, where he is now a tenured Lecturer and Principal Investigator in the Department of Life Sciences. His diverse group uses Arabidopsis as a model system to study plant-environment physical interactions and their role in plant morphogenesis. Since 2017, Dr. Sena is affiliated with the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, where he is investigating the role of bioelectric signals in root development.

Job Titles:

• Scientist

Dr. Hazan received his B.A. in Exact Sciences (2002) from Ashkelon College in Israel and his M.Sc (2007) and Ph.D (2013) in Computer Science from University of Haifa in Israel. Dr. Hananel Hazan is an interdisciplinary computer scientist. He joined Dr. Michael Levin's lab at the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University in 2019. His primary research interest lies in understanding how biological cells interact and cooperate to achieve shared goals through modeling. He employs machine learning, neural networks, and data science methodologies to unravel the adaptive learning processes cells undergo to accomplish shared tasks. Apart from his extensive work on cellular interactions, Dr. Hazan's research endeavors encompass understanding the remarkable computational capabilities of cell clusters, shedding light on how they engage with their surroundings and adapt to novel situations. Prior to joining Tufts University, Dr. Hazan worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Network Biology Research Laboratories at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. He pioneered a novel experimental platform for closed-loop interactions with a cortical neuronal network that enabled him to analyze activity of this network in real-time using machine learning techniques. Furthermore, as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Dr. Hazan focused on bioinspired machine learning and spearheaded the innovative BindsNET project - a state-of-the-art framework designed for rapid constructions of rich simulations of spiking networks.

Job Titles:

• Distinguished Professor
• Professor

Michael Levin attended Tufts University, where he received dual B.S. degrees, in CS and in Biology. He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University for the first characterization of the molecular-genetic mechanisms that allow embryos to form consistently left-right asymmetric body structures in a universe that does not macroscopically distinguish left from right (1992-1996); this work is on Nature's list of '100 Milestones of Developmental Biology of the Century'. Michael Levin, Distinguished Professor in the Biology department and Vannevar Bush Chair, serves as director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. Recent honors include the Scientist of Vision award and the Distinguished Scholar Award. His group's focus is on understanding the biophysical mechanisms that implement decision-making during complex pattern regulation, and harnessing endogenous bioelectric dynamics toward rational control of growth and form. The lab's current main directions are: • Understanding how somatic cells form bioelectrical networks for storing and recalling pattern memories that guide morphogenesis; • Creating next-generation AI tools for helping scientists understand top-down control of pattern regulation (a new bioinformatics of shape); and • Using these insights to enable new capabilities in regenerative medicine and engineering. Prior to college, Michael Levin worked as a software engineer and independent contractor in the field of scientific computing. He attended Tufts University, interested in artificial intelligence and unconventional computation. To explore the algorithms by which the biological world implemented complex adaptive behavior, he got dual B.S. degrees, in CS and in Biology and then received a PhD from Harvard University. He did post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School (1996-2000), where he began to uncover a new bioelectric language by which cells coordinate their activity during embryogenesis. His independent laboratory (2000-2007 at Forsyth Institute, Harvard; 2008-present at Tufts University) develops new molecular-genetic and conceptual tools to probe large-scale information processing in regeneration, embryogenesis, and cancer suppression.

Job Titles:

• Tier II Canada Research Chair

Nirosha J. Murugan received her Honours B.S. in Behavioural Neuroscience, M.Sc. in Biology and Biophysics, and Ph.D. in Biomolecular Sciences from Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Nirosha J. Murugan is a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Tissue Biophysics and Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Science at Wilfrid Laurier University. She earned her Ph.D. in Biomolecular Sciences with a focus on Cancer Biology and Neuroscience, where she developed patented electromagnetic and optical tools to detect and manipulate cancer fates non-invasively. In 2017, she joined the Allen Discovery Centre at Tufts University as a post-doctoral fellow, where she developed non-invasive technology for the induction of limb regeneration. She also worked with the Wyss Institute at Harvard University to develop biophysical models to understand cognition. Now, leading her own lab in Canada, Nirosha's research program uses an interdisciplinary, cell-to-society approach to understand how biophysical signals can be controlled to guide stem cell differentiation, regenerate tissues, and reprogram disease states such as cancer.

Job Titles:

• Staff Scientist

Job Titles:

• Member of the Founding

Job Titles:

• Staff Scientist

Dr. Fotowat received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering (1999) from AmirKabir University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, her master's in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2002) from University of Houston, TX and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience (2010) from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Dr. Fotowat's PhD work focused on characterizing the neural mechanisms and sensory-motor transformations that underlie generation of visually evoked escape behaviors in locusts and Drosophila. Her postdoctoral research at McGill University, University of Ottawa and Harvard University extended these studies to investigate the neural basis of variability, context-, and experience-dependence of sensory evoked behaviors. Her scientific endeavors have also resulted in technical breakthroughs such as wireless neural recording in small freely moving insects and freely swimming fish. She is currently a Senior Scientist at the Wyss Institute, working with Mike Levin's Lab on discovering cellular mechanisms underlying behaviors of biological robots endowed with a nervous system, as well as driving efforts to understand the effect of prolonged stasis on memory formation and recall using Xenopus tadpoles as a model.

Job Titles:

• Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School

Jessica earned a BA in Philosophy and a BS in Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri. In her graduate studies at MIT, she pursued questions of pattern development and maintenance in the Drosophila nervous system in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Garrity. Jessica Whited is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women's Hospital. She developed a fascination with the natural world at a young age growing up in Michigan and Missouri. Jessica earned a BA in Philosophy and a BS in Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri. In her graduate studies at MIT, she pursued questions of pattern development and maintenance in the Drosophila nervous system in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Garrity. These investigations led Jessica to consider mechanisms that animals use to ensure body plans are preserved following injury, and she has since worked to understand how axolotl salamanders regenerate entire limbs following amputation. While a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Cliff Tabin's lab at Harvard Medical School, Jessica developed molecular tools for interrogating this system more deeply, and she established a breeding colony of axolotls at HMS. Jessica's laboratory is now using these tools, combined with new gene expression data, to elucidate molecular and cellular principles underlying vertebrate limb regeneration with the hopes that this knowledge will shed light on the more limited regenerative responses in humans.

Job Titles:

• Senior Scientist in the Allen Discovery Center

Juanita Mathews received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Nevada in Reno. She received her Ph.D in Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering from the University of Hawaii in Manoa. Juanita Mathews is a Senior Scientist in the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, where her research focuses on the bioelectric control of mammalian cells. Her work encompasses how cells use bioelectricity to communicate, learn, store memory, and differentiate. Her projects have included directed innervation, non-neuronal cell communication and conditioning, and currently the bioelectric manipulation of cancer. To this end, she leverages a variety of genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors, optogenetic constructs, and electrophysiological techniques.

Dr. McLaughlin received her B.S. in Biology from Wheaton College, and her Ph.D. (1996) in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) for her work examining the underlying mechanisms regulating programmed cell death during the development of the immune system. After receiving her B.S. in Biology from Wheaton College, Kelly A. McLaughlin completed her Ph.D. (1996) in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) for her work examining the underlying mechanisms regulating programmed cell death during the development of the immune system. She completed her post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School (1996-2000), where she received awards from the National Institutes of Health (NRSA), National Kidney Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (Harvard University) to study the genetic cascades used to direct the creation of functional organs during embryonic development. In 2001 she joined the Department of Biology at Tufts University, received tenure in 2007, and is currently an Associate Professor of Biology. McLaughlin's research team uses the amphibian model system, Xenopus laevis (African clawed frog) as a model organism to elucidate how complex structures such as tissues and organs are formed during development and repaired after injury. Research in the McLaughlin lab has been supported by awards from the National Science Foundation and the American Heart Association. In addition to her research, Dr. McLaughlin has been awarded several honors for teaching and mentoring including: Undergraduate Initiative in Teaching Award (Tufts University), Certificate of Distinction in Teaching (Derek Bok Center; Harvard College), and the Excellence in Teaching Award (UMass, Amherst).

Job Titles:

• Affiliate Research Scientist

Job Titles:

• Research Fellow at the Wyss Institute

Megan Sperry received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University (2012) and M.Phil from Imperial College London (2014). She received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania (2019). Megan Sperry is a Research Fellow at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University. Her doctoral work focused on the peripheral and central nervous system mechanisms of persistent temporomandibular pain, using complex network analysis to model changes in brain function. Since joining the Wyss Institute and Levin Lab in 2019, her work has focused on therapeutics development across multiple translational research programs, using a combination of computational and whole-organism screening approaches. Currently, she is involved in a DARPA-funded effort to develop therapeutics that modulate cellular metabolism for tissue preservation, as well as an NIH F32 project examining cellular timekeeping during tissue growth and repair.

Nicolas Rouleau received his Honours BA in Psychology, MA in Experimental Psychology, and PhD in Biomolecular Sciences from Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada. Nicolas Rouleau is a neuroscientist, bioengineer, and Assistant Professor of Health Sciences at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University. Dr. Rouleau earned his PhD in Biomolecular Sciences in Michael Persinger's Neuroscience Research Group at Laurentian University, where he studied the material-like properties of human cortical cytoarchitectures and their interactions with electromagnetic signals. He joined the Allen Discovery Center in 2017 as a Postdoctoral Researcher and founding member of David Kaplan's Initiative for Neural Science, Disease & Engineering (INSciDE) at Tufts, focusing on minimal cognitive responses in bioengineered brain models. As a Principal Investigator and leader of the Rouleau Lab, Nic is developing 3D in vitro models of Alzheimer's Disease, traumatic brain injury, and other neurological disorders. Dr. Rouleau is also investigating the mechanisms of embodied cognition and synthetic biological intelligences in customizable, bioengineered neural tissues. His collaborations with Dr. Michael Levin center on the fundamental and scale-invariant properties of cognitive systems as well as the pursuit of unifying principles that reconcile organic neural function with analogous phenomena in cells, inorganic materials, and non-neural organisms.

Oded Rechavi completed his B.Sc. in the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program for Excellent students in Tel-Aviv University (TAU) in 2006. In 2010 he obtained a PhD degree in Biology, also from TAU. After establishing his own lab in TAU in 2012, Dr. Rechavi's team showed that starvation produces a small RNA-mediated transgenerational effect that extends the progeny's life span. Oded Rechavi completed his B.Sc. in the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program for Excellent students in Tel-Aviv University (TAU) in 2006. In 2010 he obtained a PhD degree in Biology, also from TAU. Dr. Rechavi conducted his Post-doctoral studies in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, in Columbia University Medical Center under the mentorship of Dr. Oliver Hobert. In his PhD Dr. Rechavi found an exception to the original "Cell Theory" (formulated in 1839), when he discovered that small RNAs and other nonsecreted macromolecules "Ignore cell boundaries" and transfer between interacting human immune cells. In his post doc, Dr. Rechavi used nematodes to provide the first direct evidence that an acquired trait can be inherited through small RNA molecules. After establishing his own lab in TAU in 2012, Dr. Rechavi's team showed that starvation produces a small RNA-mediated transgenerational effect that extends the progeny's life span. Recently, the Rechavi lab discovered rules and genes that determine which heritable epigenetic responses would be inherited to the progeny, and for how long each response would last. In addition Dr. Rechavi uses powerful genetic tools to study "molecular memories" and the theoretical links between developmental and genetic processes. Dr. Rechavi is an ERC Fellow, and was awarded many prestigious prizes, such as the Krill Wolf, Alon, and F.I.R.S.T (Bikura) Prizes, and the Gross Lipper Fellowship. Dr. Rechavi was selected as one of the "10 Most Creative People in Israel Under 40," and one of the "40 Most Promising People in Israel Under 40."

Patrick McMillen received a B.S. in Biology from Tufts University and his Ph.D. from the Yale University Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Patrick McMillen studied Biology as an undergraduate at Tufts before pursuing his Ph.D. in the Yale Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and ultimately returning to Tufts to join the Levin Laboratory. He has worked extensively with zebrafish and currently works with frogs. At heart a developmental biologist, Patrick studies the ways that groups of cells collaborate to become greater than their individual parts. He leverages cutting edge microscopy to better reveal the invisible world of bioelectricity and other paradigms of physiological computation, and is enthusiastic about collaborating with other researchers to more clearly see these things in their own systems.

Salvador received a M. Sc. and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Valencia (UV), Spain, and he has been Professor of Applied Physics at UV since 1999.

Job Titles:

• Affiliate Research Scientist

Job Titles:

• Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University

Stas Shvartsman is a Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University. He was born in Odessa, in the former Soviet Union, and studied Physical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in the Moscow State University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and Princeton University. Stas Shvartsman is a Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University. He was born in Odessa, in the former Soviet Union, and studied Physical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in the Moscow State University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and Princeton University. After postdoctoral work at MIT, he opened his own laboratory at the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton. The Shvartsman group uses experiments, theory, and computational approaches to develop predictive models of dynamical processes in cells and tissues. Current projects in the group fall into three broad classes, related to enzyme kinetics, tissue morphogenesis, and developmental bioenergetics. The first class of projects aims to establish quantitative descriptions of enzyme kinetics in vivo. The experimental systems here are Drosophila embryos and reconstituted enzyme reactions and theory is based on more or less conventional models of chemical kinetics. The second class of projects explores the processes by which two-dimensional sheets of cells give rise to three-dimensional structures of tissues and organs. Here, experiments are done in developing Drosophila eggs and zebrafish embryos and theory relies on either continuum or discrete mechanical models of epithelial tissues. Projects in the third class study how developing systems manage their constant need for energy. This project is still very young and uses the early Drosophila embryo as a powerful experimental system for genetic, biochemical, and imaging studies of embryonic metabolism.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Founding

Job Titles:

• Research Scientist in the Allen Discovery Center

Vaibhav Prakash Pai received his B.Sc. in Microbiology and Genetics from University of Bombay (Mumbai) (2001). He received his M.Sc. in Biophysics from University of Bombay (Mumbai), India (2003). He earned his Ph.D. in Systems Biology and Physiology from University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine (2009). Vaibhav Pai is a Research Scientist in the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University where he is currently engaged in using synthetic biology and bio-robots to explore first principles of morphology (information for shape formation and exploring possible morphologies outside evolutionary constraints), basal/non-neural somatic cell cognition, decision making, and computation with a focus on role of bioelectric circuits (ion fluxes and membrane voltage patterns within somatic cells). His past research involved discovering serotonin autocrine-paracrine system in mammary glands and how it interfaces with biophysical mechanisms (Trans-epithelial resistance - a key component of epithelial function) in acting as a switch between lactation and involution (breakdown of milk producing machinery and total reconfiguration of gland). He also discovered how this serotonergic system gets hacked by breast cancers. This work had a major impact on mammary gland biology, breast cancer, and the dairy industry. Vaibhav Pai is primarily interested in biophysical mechanisms guiding complex biological processes. Understanding how bioelectrical circuits (ion fluxes and membrane voltage patterns within somatic cells) control embryonic organ development, regeneration, and repair. His research combines novel biophysical approaches and state-of-art imaging (voltage-reporter dyes and optogenetics) with developmental biology, neurobiology, molecular biology, and computational approaches to discover the basic principles underlying bioelectric control of morphogenesis. This knowledge will give us the capability to use bioelectric manipulation for regeneration and repair in cases of birth-defects, traumatic injuries, diseases, and cancer (all of which can be seen as issues of loss of shape information). This knowledge will also help develop new pharmaceuticals (drugs targeting ion channels - ionoceuticals) and will have long term impact in bioengineering.

Job Titles:

• Staff Scientist