Research

Physicists have been harnessing quantitative physical approaches to address biological problems on the length scales from molecules to the macroscopic, since Erwin Schrodinger published his thoughts on the relation between biology and physics in his famous book, What is Life?. Significant progresses have been made in understanding physical properties of single biological molecules, such as proteins and DNA, and collective behaviors of cells. However, the mesoscopic rules of how cells of particular functions turn over their constituents and dissipate energy are largely unexplored. Nerve cells, which are often highly branched to receive a large number of synaptic inputs but at the same time supply materials and energy to all parts through bifurcated dendritic processes, are ideal systems to explore the mesoscopic rules governing the development of cells of particular functions. The long-term goal of our research is to apply multidisciplinary approaches, ranging from advanced imaging and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics to genetic manipulations, to understand how neuronal morphology is determined from the non-equilibrium processes, i.e. the retrograde flows of information and the anterograde flow of materials, under both normal development and pathological stresses.