MCL Team Awards

Molecules Come to Life

Goal: for early career theorists and experimentalists from physics, biology, and closely related disciplines to develop a stronger quantitative connection between molecular phenomena and phenomena at the cellular systems level by pursuing collaborative, high risk, highly impactful discovery research on untested ideas in physical cell biology.

Team Awards 2018

Principles of Organelle Copy Number Homeostasis
(2nd Year Funding)
Suckjoon Jun, physics, University of California, San Diego
Laura Lackner, molecular biosciences, Northwestern University
Funded by Research Corporation

The Evolutionary Dynamics of Temporal Division of Labor
(2nd Year Funding)
Minsu Kim, physics, Emory University
Kirill Korolev, physics, Boston University
Funded by Research Corporation

Team Awards 2017

Quantification of the Wnt Morphogen Gradient in Hydra and Mechanically-Induced Symmetry Breaking
Eva-Maria Collins, physics, University of California, San Diego (now at Swarthmore College)
Adriana Dawes, mathematical biology, The Ohio State University
Thomas Kuhlman, physics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

A Tunable Microfluidic Platform for Observing Long-Term Microbial Community Dynamics
Roy Dar, bioengineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Brian Hammer, biology, Georgia Institute of Technology
Srividya Iyer-Biswas, physics, Purdue University
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Forecasting Collective Cancer Dynamics
Michelle Digman, developmental and cell biology, University of California, Irvine
Steve Presse, physics, Arizona State University
Bo Sun, physics, Oregon State University
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Unravelling the Second Secret of Life: Are All Proteins Allosteric?
Polly Fordyce, genetics and bioengineering, Stanford University
Banu Ozkan, physics, Arizona State University
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Principles of Organelle Copy Number Homeostasis
Suckjoon Jun, physics, University of California, San Diego
Laura Lackner, molecular biosciences, Northwestern University
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

The Evolutionary Dynamics of Temporal Division of Labor
Minsu Kim, physics, Emory University
Kirill Korolev, physics, Boston University
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

What Constrains Microbial Diversity? Deriving New Ecological Principles for the Microbial World
(2nd Year Funding)
Pankaj Mehta, physics, Boston University
Alvaro Sanchez, ecology and evolutionary biology, Yale University
Funded by Research Corporation

Team Awards 2016

High-Dimensional Context Dependence of a Ubiquitous Ecological Interaction
Paul Blainey, genomics, Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Seppe Kuehn, physics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Commoditizing Advanced Molecular Imaging Techniques
Ibrahim Cissé, physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Moumita Das, physics, Rochester Institute of Technology
Megan Valentine, mechanical engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara
Ali Yanik, electrical engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Heteroplasmy: Population Dynamics of Mitochondria in Mammalian Cells
Moumita Das, physics, Rochester Institute of Technology
Daniel Needleman, applied physics, Harvard University
Douglas Weibel, biomedical engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Deconstructing the Cell’s Mechanical Circuits
Adriana Dawes, mathematical biology, The Ohio State University
Matthew Ferguson, physics, Boise State University
Dinah Loerke, physics, University of Denver
Megan Valentine, mechanical engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

What Constrains Microbial Diversity? Deriving New Ecological Principles for the Microbial World
Pankaj Mehta, physics, Boston University
Alvaro Sanchez, ecology and evolutionary biology, Yale University
Funded by the Simons Foundation

Conditional Gene Essentiality as Function of Cell Metabolic State
Adilson Motter, physics, Northwestern University
Kimberly Reynolds, systems biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Rebooting the Gut Microbial Ecosystem Using Bacterial Dueling
(2nd Year Funding)
Brian Hammer, biology, Georgia Institute of Technology
Raghuveer Parthasarathy, physics, University of Oregon
Joao Xavier, computational biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Funded by the Simons Foundation

Building an Artificial Motile Tissue through Self-Organized Rhythmic Contractility
(2nd Year Funding)
Rae Robertson-Anderson, physics, University of San Diego
Jenny Ross, physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Michael Rust, molecular genetics and cell biology, University of Chicago
Funded by Research Corporation

Team Awards 2015

Rethinking the Idea of Cell Type
Grégoire Altan-Bonnet, computational biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (now at NIH)
Pankaj Mehta, physics, Boston University
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Immersive DNA Force Sensors and Predictive Mechanical Modeling for Tissue Morphogenesis
Margaret Gardel, physics, University of Chicago
Justin Kinney, quantitative biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
M. Lisa Manning, physics, Syracuse University
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Rebooting the Gut Microbial Ecosystem Using Bacterial Dueling
Brian Hammer, biology, Georgia Institute of Technology
Raghuveer Parthasarathy, physics, University of Oregon
Joao Xavier, computational biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Uncovering Essential Gene Functions by Exploiting Differentiation within a Biofilm or Lethal Gene Deletions Come Alive in Biofilms!
Kerwyn (KC) Huang, bioengineering, Stanford University
Gurol Suel, molecular biology, University of California, San Diego
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Building an Artificial Motile Tissue through Self-Organized Rhythmic Contractility
Rae Robertson-Anderson, physics, University of San Diego
Jenny Ross, physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Michael Rust, molecular genetics and cell biology, University of Chicago
Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation