Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Microbiology

We are actively engaged in both reverse engineering (systems microbiology) and forward engineering (synthetic microbiology) of biological networks, including gene-regulatory networks and microbial ecosystems, for various fundamental and applied purposes.

Our primary tools are - molecular biology, single-cell microfluidics, time-lapse microscopy, and machine-learning. We leverage these tools synergistically to investigate: How does noise in regulatory networks and environmental fluctuations contribute to dynamic heterogeneity at the cellular level? How does physiological diversity among cells influence population dynamics over both short and long timescales, including evolutionary processes?

Our primary research focus is to apply this approach for developing a comprehensive understanding of the processes underlying the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in microbes, and for engineering modified microbes (bacteria and viruses) to tackle resistant infections.