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).
My research focuses on single polymer dynamics and molecular materials, specifically on the ability to manipulate and control single molecules. My research group’s work in single polymer dynamics has revealed the fundamental features that determine the structural and functional properties of soft materials, including polymers with complex molecular architectures (combs, rings), chemically heterogeneous polymers (DNA-synthetic … Continued
Our group specializes in using engineered tissues and computational models to understand how mechanical forces direct developmental patterning events during tissue morphogenesis and during disease progression. We are specifically focused on uncovering key insights into how tissues build themselves and how mechanical forces induce cancer progression.
My research group aims to develop protein therapeutics to treat and vaccines to prevent infectious diseases, using a combination of biological and engineering principles. This work primarily focuses on design of proteins, using evolutionary, structural and computational apporaches. The antibody which served as the focus of my doctoral work was subsequently licensed and developed as … Continued