Interesting Lab Websites

Aksimentiev group: molecular dynamics, computational bionanotechnology, DNA origami simulations, nanopore simulations, design of synthetic molecular machines

Alexander-Katz group: lipid bilayer physics, biopolymer physics, self-assembly

Anikeeva lab: bioelectronics, flexible neural probes, optoelectronics, magnetic devices

*Arnold group: directed evolution techniques for protein engineering, biocatalysis, biochemical manufacturing, enzymes, machine learning for protein engineering and directed evolution 

*Baker lab: computational protein engineering, de novo protein design, the protein folding problem, homology modeling, ab initio modeling, crowdsourcing methods for protein folding 

Barron group: using the bee brain as a basis for understanding cognition, biomimetic artificial intelligence, insect neurobiology

Bathe lab: structural DNA and RNA nanotechnology, virus-like nanoparticles for vaccines and drug delivery, quantum computing hardware using DNA origami, DNA-based computing, multiplexed imaging of synapses for deciphering schizophrenia and autism, stabilizing RNAs for cryo-EM imaging and understanding their catalytic properties

Belcher group: biomaterials, nanotechnology, nanoengineering with M13 bacteriophages, biomaterials for batteries and solar cells, biomaterial catalysts, directed evolution, hybrid organic-inorganic nanomaterials

Berger group: hippocampal prosthesis, brain-brain interfacing, signal processing, implantable neuroelectronics

Bhatia group: nanotechnology and microtechnology for studying and perturbing tissue microenvironments, tissue engineering, understanding liver and cancer tissue microenvironments

Bintu lab: systems and synthetic biology tools for epigenetics, high-throughput assay technology for deciphering epigenetic regulation, nanobody-mediated control of epigenetic gene expression

Boahen lab: neuromorphic hardware engineering for computational neuroscience, software tools to integrate computational neuroscience with new neuromorphic hardware, neural prostheses, neuroscience of attention, computational modeling of neurobiological development towards creating brain emulations

*Boyden lab: synthetic neurobiology, expansion microscopy, optogenetic tools, connectomics, directed evolution, protein engineering, optical tools for neuroscience 

Bruns lab: nanomechanical devices, supramolecular chemistry, rotaxanes 

Chittka lab: honeybee neurobiology and ecology, sensory neurobiology of honeybees, computational neuroscience 

Chung lab: CLARITY, related tools for connectomics 

*Church lab: synthetic biology, DNA nanotechnology, tools for systems biology, evolutionary biology, genome engineering, CRISPR, aging research, tissue engineering, nanopore sequencing, gene drives and ecological engineering, growing human organs in pigs, next-generation gene therapies, human physiology in outer space, genomics, spatial transcriptomics tools, methods for deciphering 3D organization of chromosomes

Cohen lab: computational approaches to neural oscillations, experimental approaches to neural oscillations 

Collepardo lab: computational biophysics of chromatin organization, multiscale simulations of chromatin, atomistic molecular dynamics of chromatin components, coarse-graining techniques for chromatin models, computational modeling of epigenetic influences on chromatin, liquid-liquid phase separation of chromatin domains, designing chromatin-inspired nanotechnology for sustainable data storage

Covert lab: computational systems biology, whole-cell simulation, reporters for live-cell imaging, computational image analysis for live-cell imaging

Cramer lab: biomolecular chromatography and NMR, molecular dynamics simulations for studying chromatographic systems, chromatographic column modeling, smart biopolymer affinity precipitation systems, quantitative structure activity models for chromatography

Cronin group: molecular computing, information theory in chemistry, automated synthetic chemistry, understanding the origin of life by exploring chemical processes

Danino lab: synthetic biology to engineer living medicines, programming bacteria to attack tumors, gene circuit design, data science approaches to optimizing synthetic biology systems

Dietz lab: DNA nanotechnology, RNA nanotechnology, molecular machines, fabricating and characterizing biomolecular nanotechnology

Dionne group: biophotonics, nanophotonics, upconversion nanoparticles, tools for visualizing chemical processes, surface plasmon resonance, nanoparticle-based reporters for mechanobiology and electrophysiology

*Doudna lab: structures and mechanisms of CRISPR systems,  new CRISPR-based gene editing tools, CRISPR-based diagnostics, developing CRISPR to treat human disease, developing CRISPR for better engineering of crops

Doyle group: microparticles for biomedicine, microfluidics, DNA polymer physics

*Feringa group: molecular nanotechnology, supramolecular chemistry, biohybrid systems, nanotechnology for synthesis and catalysis, molecular manufacturing

Frangakis group: structural biology, cryo-electron tomography for imaging cellular organization, integrating data from atomic resolution reconstruction techniques with cryo-electron tomography, pattern recognition methods to find spatial locations of biomolecules in 3D cryo-electron tomograms 

Franklin group: novel nanomaterials for electronics, methods for fabricating nanoelectronics, nanoelectronic biosensors

Fussenegger group: synthetic protein receptors, immuno-mimmetic cells, synthetic gene switches, programmable biocomputers, prosthetic cells for sensing and responding to disease, engineered cells as diagnostic tools, programming of stem cell lineages, drug discovery, non-neural optogenetics, using synthetic biology for drug manufacturing, synthetic gene regulatory networks

Göpfrich lab: DNA nanotechnology and synthetic cell engineering, biophysics, 3D printing inside of synthetic cells, mechanics of membrane-enclosed compartments, information encoding and processing in biological systems, microfluidics, molecular dynamics, nanopores

Gore lab: physics-based approaches to understanding microbial ecology, evolution of microbial cooperative behaviors, evolution of antibiotic resistance, determining factors for diversity of microbial communities, dynamics of microbial population collapses

Häusser group: neural computations in the cerebellum and neocortex, recording neural activity with Neuropixels, focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy for connectomics, simultaneous two-photon imaging and optogenetic manipulation, patch-clamp tools

Heiman lab: molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases, molecular profiling of specific cell types, in vivo genetic screening within brain tissue, Translating Ribosome Affinity Purification (TRAP) methodology

Holten group: bio-inspired interfaces, materials science, polymers 

Horiuchi group: computational sensorimotor neuroscience, neuromorphic VSLI design, neural computation in bats, mobile robotics inspired by neural computations in bats

Issacs lab: RNA riboregulator engineering, building new genetic code using MAGE and CAGE, drug discovery from biological diversity and design, high-throughput biology

Jeong lab: flexible electronics, brain-machine interfaces, biophotonics, wearable electronic “tattoos” 

Ji lab: optical microscopy tools for neuroscience, neural circuits, computation in visual pathways

Johnson group: branched polymer nanomaterials, hydrogel networks, semiconducting organometallic polymers

Kamm lab: mechanobiology, tissue engineering to make model systems for studying diseases, cancer model systems, vascular model systems, neurodegenerative disease model systems, microfluidic models, vascularized organoids, tissue imaging

Karr lab: computational systems biology, whole-cell simulation, data analysis tools for large-scale modeling of cells, integrating information from biological databases into computational models

Kleinfeld lab: brain microcirculation, imaging with two-photon microscopy and adaptive optics, orofacial motor actions and sensory processing, engineered cell-based reporters for detecting neurotransmitters

*Knight lab: the microbiome, environmental microbiota, animal and human microbiota, bioinformatic tool development, experimental tool development, microbiome research for forensic science

*Langer lab: polymeric drug delivery systems, controlled release drug delivery systems, nanotechnology for drug delivery, biomaterials, angiogenesis inhibition, polymer systems for tissue engineering, mathematical modeling of biomaterials

Lee lab: connectomics, electron microscopy of brain tissue, two-photon calcium imaging, neurobiology of motor circuits and association cortex, correlative microscopy, x-ray holographic nanotomography

Leifer lab: C. elegans neurobiology, optogenetics, calcium indicators, whole-organism optical neurophysiology, computational neuroscience

Leigh group: nanotechnology, supramolecular chemistry, molecular motors, molecular robotics, walking molecules, molecular weaving, molecular machines for chemical synthesis

Lieber lab: injectable electronics, biomaterials, brain-machine interfaces, flexible electronics, immunological responses to implanted electronics 

Lipson group: robotics, autonomous self-replication, self-aware machines, food printing, computational evolution of soft robots, robots which show creativity, biomimetic machines, particle robotics. 

Liu group: custom light-sheet and confocal microscopes for clinical applications, custom endoscopes, nanoparticle contrast agents, disease biomarker imaging. 

Lytton group: computational neuroscience, multiscale modeling of neurobiological systems, software development for biophysical modeling, dendritic processing models, network models, molecular models 

Maharbiz lab: neural dust, implantable microelectronics, brain-computer interfaces, bioelectronics, electrical engineering 

Metscher lab: x-ray microscopy for developmental morphology, x-ray microscopy of arthropod specimens, contrast agents for x-ray microscopy, dual energy x-ray microscopy, molecular probes for x-ray microscopy 

Mizutani lab: x-ray microtomography and nanotomography for imaging brain tissue, comparison of neuronal microarchitecture between healthy and diseased states, synchrotron x-ray microscopy 

Olsen lab: polymers, protein engineering, network chemistry, nanotechnology 

Oron lab: far-field super-resolution imaging techniques, optics of biogenic crystals, nanoparticle optics, multiphoton microscopy 

Pessoa lab: emotion and cognition, computational neuroscience, affective brain networks

Plückthun lab: protein engineering applied to tumor targeting, shielded and retargeted adenoviral gene therapy, directed evolution to make more stable GPCRs for high-throughput studies, structural biology, antibody engineering, directed evolution tools, designed ankyrin repeat proteins as scaffolds, designed armadillo repeat proteins for binding many epitopes, GPCR structural biology

Qi lab: new CRISPR-based tools for engineering the human genome, mammalian synthetic biology, synthetic biology for epigenetics, gene and cell therapy technologies, CRISPR-based gene therapy to provide pan-coronavirus protection

Ramirez group: neurobiology of learning and memory, engineering memories using optogenetics and other techniques in order to treat psychiatric disorders 

Rodriguez group: micro-electron diffraction for solving molecular structures, new methods for x-ray crystallography, protein engineering, imaging cells using lens-less x-ray diffraction techniques 

Sarkar group: nanobioelectronics, novel nanoelectronic devices, nanomachine interfaces with biological systems, neuromorphic computing, wireless nanoimplants, expansion microscopy, energy-efficient nanoelectronics

Schiller lab: cortical computation, single neuron computation, plasticity mechanisms in cortex, sensorimotor learning mechanisms 

Schulaker group: new nanomaterials and nanodevices for electronics, complex electronic nanosystems, useful applications for nanoelectronic systems, assembling large-scale electronics from nanoscale components, 3D chips, implantable nanoelectronics, carbon nanotube computing

Sestan lab: spatial transcriptomics in the brain, computational neuroscience, systems neuroscience, RNA sequencing

Shawn Douglas lab: DNA nanotechnology, protein engineering, nanorobotics

Shih lab: DNA origami, single-molecule analysis tools via DNA nanotechnology, novel DNA nanotechnology architectures, nanorobotic devices using DNA nanotechnology, therapeutic delivery systems using DNA nanotechnology

*Sinclair lab: epigenetic noise and aging, epigenetic gene therapy treat aging, drugs to treat aging, mitochondria in aging, delaying menopause and reversing infertility, slowing and reversing neurodegenerative diseases, the human secretome

So lab: mechanobiological imaging, biological spectroscopy, nonlinear microscopy, endoscopy, multi-photon imaging, engineering new ways to perform cellular and tissue imaging 

Smolke lab: RNA nanodevices, high-throughput measurement platforms for molecular activities, engineering more efficient plant natural product biosynthesis, synthetic biology for natural product discovery and manufacturing, mammalian synthetic biology

Stavrinidou group: electronic plants, organic electronics, bioelectronics

Stoddart group: supramolecular chemistry, supramolecular machines, supramolecular photochemistry, supramolecular electronics, supramolecular energy storage, porous materials, supramolecular boxes and cages, supramolecular factories, mechanostereochemistry, catenanes and rotaxanes, supramolecular topology

Trevor Douglas lab: virus capsids as useful biomaterials, P22 phage capsid to encapsulate enzymes and make nanoreactors, P22 phage capsid as a template for constrained polymer synthesis, nanobiotechnology for targeted MRI contrast agents

*Voigt lab: synthetic biology, programming cells, genetic parts and devices, agricultural synthetic biology, biosynthesis of novel materials and therapeutics

Wang lab (Harris Wang): microbiome engineering, MAGE and CAGE and other tools for genome-scale engineering, dynamics of microbiomes, metagenomics, spatial metagenomics, horizontal gene transfer, synthetic biology, DNA-based cellular recording, microbiomes and metabolism, alternative genetic codes

Wang lab (Joeseph Wang): nanobioelectronics, nanorobotics, nanobiosensors, flexible materials

Wang lab (Xiao Wang): in situ 3D nucleic acid sequencing, molecular basis of cell identity, impact of RNA dynamics on neural function, molecular cues guiding the formation of neural circuits

*Weiss lab: synthetic biology, synthetic gene networks using digital logic principles, analog genetic circuits, protein engineering

White lab: computational biology and computational chemistry, machine learning in molecular simulations, ab initio molecular dynamics, coarse-graining tools for molecular simulations, computational tools for education 

Wu lab: synthetic immunobiology, immunotherapy, cancer-targeting genetic circuits, light-inducible immunotherapies, CAR-T cells which respond to their environments using genetic circuits, foundational synthetic biology design methods, machine learning tools for synthetic biology

*Zhang lab: developing CRISPR-based tools, genetic delivery with viral vectors and exosomes, platforms for gene therapy, discovering new genetic tools from biological diversity, transcriptomics, spatial DNA sequencing, precision gene editing

*groups led by superstar professors who have risen to celebrity status [a highly subjective metric arising from my biased observations].

Cover image source: Aksimentiev group