My research interests lie at the crossroads of biological physics, soft active matter, and statistical mechanics. I am motivated by experimental observations and use theoretical analysis and computational tools to understand them. My goal is to discover new physical effects in biological systems and to explain biological processes from a physical perspective.
The central theme of the group’s research is the feedback between cells and their environment from the single cell to tissue level. For example, we ask how do migrating cells create patterns in their surrounding tissue and how do these patterns promote further migration? We tackle this question by modeling the cells together with their environment as an active gel. Answering this question will help to better understand key biological processes such as metastasis, in hopes of promoting human health.
