Cellular Biophysics

Photo Credit: Manalis Lab
Research in Cellular Biophysics at MIT emphasizes instrumentation for probing and manipulating individual cells, and modeling of cellular mechanics.
Uncovering how cells control their protein output
Gene-Wei Li investigates the rules that cells use to maintain the correct ratio of the proteins they need to survive.
A typical bacterial genome contains more than 4,000 genes, which encode all of the proteins that the cells need to survive. How do cells know just how much of each protein they need for their everyday functions?
What drives ecosystems to instability?
With only a little information, researchers can predict the circumstances under which an ecosystem will be stable or unstable.
MIT researchers studied ecosystems of up to 48 species of bacteria and discovered how the communities shift from stable to unstable states.
Credits:Image: William Lopes, Gore Lab
Qin (Maggie) Qi
Lindsay Case
Pulin Li
Anders Sejr Hansen
Mirae Parker
Biologists and mathematicians team up to explore tissue folding
An algorithm developed to study the structure of galaxies helps explain a key feature of embryonic development.
As embryos develop, they follow predetermined patterns of tissue folding, so that individuals of the same species end up with nearly identically shaped organs and very similar body shapes.
Anders Sejr Hansen
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