My research interests span from single molecule biophysics to evolution via the study of development. I have been studying the mechanical properties of single DNA molecules for the past 20 years, using those as a means to investigate its interactions with a variety of structural proteins and molecular motors. Recently, we discovered a new means to sequence DNA by mechanically unzipping it and detecting the hybridization of complementary oligonucleotides as they transiently block its re-zipping. In the past 5-6 years I have been interested in the study of physiology at the single cell level. We have developed means to control the activity of proteins and other biomolecules at the single cell level, which gives us the opportunity to perturb locally and temporally various physiological pathways which we are currently studying (somitogenesis, learning, cancer). Finally, I have been interested in experimental evolution and bacterial ecology. We have recently shown that the dynamics of exchange of public goods in a bacterial colony is similar to a continuous version of the Tit-for-Tat game.

Technion, Haifa B.Sc. (summa cum laude) Physics 1972- 1976
Technion, Haifa B.Sc. Electrical Engineering 1972- 1976
Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, M.Sc. Applied Physics, 1978-1980, Optical propagation in a turbulent atmosphere
University of Chicago, Ph.D. in Physics, 1982-1986 Pattern formation

Visiting Scientist, Bell Labs, Murray Hill, 1986-1988
Visiting Professor of Physics, University Paris 7, 1988
Chargé de Recherche CNRS (CR1), 1989-1992
Directeur de Recherche CNRS (DR2), 1992-2001
Directeur de Recherche CNRS (DR1), 1991-present
Full Professor UCLA, 2009- present

Dolores Bozovic received her PhD in Physics in 2001, from Harvard University, on electron transport in carbon nanotubes. She then completed postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University, from 2001-2005, in a Sensory Neuroscience laboratory. From 2005 to the present, she was Assistant and then Associate Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the California NanoSystems Institute, at University of California Los Angeles. The Bozovic lab focuses on problems at the interface between physics and sensory neuroscience. In particular, we study how auditory and vestibular systems perform mechanical sensing down to the nanometer level. The main topics are: (1) nonlinear dynamics of response by individual elements - the hair cells, (2) synchronization of movement by inter-cell coupling, and (3) self-tuning in response to external stimulus. The experiments require measuring bundle motility with nanometer-level precision, in preparations that preserve the biological function of the cells. Our measurement system includes parallel-tracking ability, allowing us to explore synchronization between active motility of different hair cells. We interpret our findings in the context of nonlinear dynamics and bifurcation theory, to explain the nanoscale sensitivity displayed by the biological system.

Education:

Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, B.S. in Physics.(19.74).
Rijks-Universiteit Utrecht, M.S. in Physics (1976).
University of Southern California., Ph.D. in Physics (1979).

Positions Held:

Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University 1979-1980.
Research Associate, Brookhaven National Lab.1980-1982.
Visiting Scientist, IBM Research Center, Yorktown, 1982-1984.
Assistant Professor of Physics, University of California, 1984-1988
Associate Professor of Physics, University of California, 1988-1990
Chair, Theoretical Physics for the Life Sciences, Leiden University, 2000-2001
Full Professor of Physics, University of California, 1990-2008
Distinguished Professor of Physics, University of California, 2008-2012

Honors:

Pierre et Marie Curie Visiting Professorship (E.S.P.C.I.) (1994)
Rothschild Foundation Fellowship (1996)
Distinguished Lecturer, College de France (1999)
Fellow American Physical Society (2001)
Hans-Fischer Fellowship, Technical University Munich, (2011)

I am interested in developing mathematical and physical models of stochastic processes applicable to subcellular and cellular biophysics. Some mathematically more formal research interests include determining uniqueness of stochastic inverse problems, such as branching processes. My applied research interests focus on developing mathematical models of viral entry and infection, cancer progression, and retinal detachments. My group is also investigating computational algorithms for the segmentation of images of tissues and bacterial cells.

Starting in the late 1970s, I began working in the then-emerging field of “complex fluids,” concentrating over the following two decades on developing molecular theories of liquid crystals, polymer solutions, colloidal and nanoparticle suspsensions, self-assembling systems, and biological membranes. About 10 years ago I became intrigued by the physical basis of viral infectivity and, with my colleague Charles M. Knobler, established a laboratory to investigate a wide range of viruses outside their hosts and isolated in test tubes. We work on both DNA and RNA viruses, attempting to identify and explain the generic differences in their “live cycles” in terms of the differences between stiff linear genomes (double-stranded DNA) and flexible branched ones (single-stranded RNA). In particular, we have focused on the role of pressure in DNA packaging and delivery, and on the role of spontaneous self-assembly in the case of RNA viruses. A large part of our effort is devoted to understanding the physical forces driving the syntheses of viruses and virus-like particles (i.e., single-molecule-thick protein shells [capsids] containing nucleic acid), and their wrapping by phospholipid bilayer. Experimental methods include fluorescence microscopy and correlation spectroscopy, small-angle synchrotron X-ray scattering, and cryo-electron microscopy; theoretical approaches involve both analytical and computational treatments of RNA structure and of the statistical thermodynamics and kinetics of nucleocapsid self-assembly.

After completing my formal education (Harvard B.S. [1967], University of Chicago Ph.D. [1970], and NSF and Miller Institute postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Paris [1971] and UC Berkeley [1972]), I joined the faculty at UC Berkeley in 1972 as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry, moving as Associate Professor in 1975 to UCLA, where I have served as Professor since 1979, Chair (2001-4), and Distinguished Professor since 1999. I am also a Member of the California NanoSystems Institute and of the Molecular Biology Institute.

William Klug has been an Associate Professor in the UCLA Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department since 2003. He received a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Westmont College in 1997, a M.S. in Civil Engineering from UCLA in 1999, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Caltech in 2003. He is the recipient of a 2007 NSF CAREER award. Professor Klug's primary scientific background is in continuum and computational modeling of the mechanics of solids and structures. He has particular interests in the physics of thin beam- and shell-like structures, and in developing continuum theories and computational methods for multi-scale and multi-physics problems in biology, including mechanics and assembly of viruses, mechanics of cell membranes, mechanics of DNA, mechanics of cytoskeletal networks, and electro-mechanics of the heart.

My research, almost exclusively experimental, has been in soft condensed matter physics, a field that lies at the fuzzy border between physics, physical chemistry and chemical engineering. Much of the work concerned phase transitions and included studies of critical phenomena, nucleation and growth and two-dimensional systems, largely monolayers at the air/water interface. About 10 years ago, however, I and my colleague Bill Gelbart made an abrupt change and began to focus on viruses. We have played a major role in the development of the new science of physical virology in which the properties of viruses – their structures, their assembly, their replication and their mode of infection – are examined both experimentally and theoretically in terms of general physical principles. Our research is broad based and involves studies of bacterial, plant and mammalian viruses,

Background: After receiving my BA in chemistry from NYU, I spent 3 years as a graduate student in Physical Chemistry at Penn State. As a recipient of a Fulbright Award I began research in Low-Temperature Molecular Physics in the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory in the Netherlands. After completing my doctorate there I was a post doc in chemistry at Ohio State and then in chemical engineering at Caltech. I then joined the faculty in chemistry at UCLA.

Honors.: Fulbright Scholar. UCLA Herbert Newby McCoy Award, Fellow, American Physical Society, UCLA Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award, Alexander von Humboldt Senior Award, University of Mainz, UCLA College of Letters and Science Faculty Award, Alexander von Humboldt Senior Award, Max Planck Institute, Potsdam, Kolthoff Lecturer, University of Minnesota, American Chemical Society Award in Colloid Chemistry, Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry, Dickson Award

Alex Levine completed his Ph.D. in physics at UCLA in 1996. Following postdocs at Exxon Research & Engineering, UPENN, and UCSB, he joined the physics department of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst as an assistant professor. In 2005 he returned to UCLA where he is now a professor of Physics & Astronomy, Chemistry & Biochemistry, and the director of the Center for Biological Physics. His main research interests involve statistical physics, mechanics of disordered elastic systems, and the dynamical phase behavior of interacting neurons. His principal work in biological physics involves the mechanics of the cytoskeleton, hydrodynamics and transport in membranes, and theoretical neuroscience.

1996 Ph.D., UCLA
1996-1998 Postdoctoral researcher, Exxon Research
1998-2001 Postdoctoral researcher, University of Pennsylvania
2001-2002 Postdoctoral researcher, UCSB
2002-2005 Assistant Professor, UMASS
2005-2008 Assistant Professor, UCLA
2008-2011 Associate Professor, UCLA
2011-present Professor, UCLA.

I develop scientific principles for understanding complex structure and dynamics in multi-body interacting systems based on experiments involving dispersions of microscale to nanoscale particles, droplets, and polymers. Thermal motion of probe particles in polymer solutions and other complex fluids can be used to measure frequency dependent mechanical response through passive microrheology (Mason & Weitz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 1995; review Squires & Mason, Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 2010). Roughness controlled depletion attractions (Zhao & Mason, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2007) have enabled the experimental realization of near-ideal 2D systems of hard Brownian shapes; these systems are yielding new understanding of dense phases and transitions (see e.g. Zhao, Bruinsma, and Mason, PNAS 2011). I am also interesting in understanding how biomaterials, such as DNA and protein, adapt to artificial synthetic geometries. This has led to the creation of nanoscale virus-like droplets (VLDs) that are effectively viral protein cages that self-assemble in the aqueous phase around anionically stabilized oil nanodroplets (Chang et al., ACS Nano 2008).


2003- : Professor at UCLA Chem/Biochem and Phys/Astro, CA
1997-2003: Research Scientist at ExxonMobil Research and Eng. Co., NJ
1996-1997: Postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins U., MD
1995-1996: Postdoctoral researcher at CNRS Paul Pascal, Bordeaux, France
1989-1995: Graduate student at Princeton U., NJ (MA 1991, PhD 1995 in
physics)
1985-1989: Undergraduate student at U. Maryland, College Park (BS physics
high honors & BSEE, summa cum laude)

Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2008
NSF Career Award, 2005
McTague Chair of Physical Chemistry at UCLA, 2003-2008
Joseph Henry Prize in Physics at Princeton U., 1989

The mind is thought to be the emergent property of the activities of ensembles of neurons. The nature of these emergent properties and how they arise are unknown. This is the focus of our research. In particular, our current research addresses the following fundamental questions in Neurophysics:
1. How is information about the physical world represented by ensembles of neurons? In particular, what are the neural mechanisms of perceiving space-time?
2. How do the neural representations evolve with learning?
3. What is the role of brain rhythms in learning and memory?
4. How does sleep influence learning?
To address these questions we use both experimental and theoretical approaches as follows:
1. Develop hardware to measure and manipulate neural activity and behavior.
2. Measure the activity of ensembles of well isolated neurons from many hippocampal and neocortical areas simultaneously during learning and during sleep.
3. Develop data analysis tools to decipher the patterns of neural activity and field potentials, and their relationship to behavior.
4. Develop biophysical theories of synapses, neurons and neuronal networks that can explain these experimental finding, relate them to the underlying cellular mechanisms, and make experimentally testable predictions.
The results would not only provide fundamental understanding of neural ensemble dynamics but also point to novel ways of treating learning and memory disorders.

Positions held:
Professor, Departments of: Physics & Astronomy, Neurology, Neurobiology, UCLA (2012--)
Honorary member of the Norwegian Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011--)
Associate Professor, Departments of Physics & Astronomy, Neurology, Neurobiology, UCLA (2009--2012)
Visiting Professor, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Norway (2009--)
Assistant professor, Department of Neuroscience, Brown University (2004-2009)

My research interests lie in the interplay of physics, nanoscience and biology. I am particularly interested in developing new physical methods for quantitative imaging of nanoscale materials and biological specimens in three dimensions. I have played a major role in pioneering a three-dimensional imaging approach based upon the principle of using coherent diffraction in combination with a method of direct phase recovery called oversampling. I, together with my graduate students and postdocs, will continue to improve the spatial resolution of this imaging technique and pursue its applications in nanoscience and biology by using optical lasers, coherent X-rays and electrons.

Ph. D., Physics, the State University of New York, Stony Brook, 12/1999.
M. S., Computer Science, the State University of New York, Stony Brook, 5/1999
Advanced Graduate Certificate, Biomedical Engineering, the State University of New York,
Stony Brook, 5/1999
M. S., Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7/1994
B. S., Physics, Hangzhou University, P. R. China, 7/1991



7/2009-Present Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy & California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles
7/2007-7-2009 Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy & California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles
8/2004-7/2007 Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy & California
NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles
1/2000-7/2004 Staff Scientist, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, SLAC, Stanford University


Kavli Frontiers Fellow, 2010.
Guest Professor, Zhejiang University, China, 2009 – Present.
Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, UCLA, 2006-2007.
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 2006.
Guest Professor, RIKEN, Japan, 2004 – Present.
Werner Meyer-Ilse Memorial Award, 1999.
Whitaker Foundation Scholarship, 1997-1999.
Outstanding Student of the Year Award, Hangzhou University, 1990-1991.

Dr. Amy Rowat’s lab is interested in the material properties of biological matter, the origins of this behavior and role in physiology. Their research efforts largely focus on the shape and mechanical properties of the cell nucleus: they want to understand the role of nuclear physical and mechanical properties in whole cell mechanics and physiology and ultimately the physical and molecular origins of these properties. Rowat’s multidisciplinary team is addressing these questions by developing and merging methods in physics, engineering, cell and molecular biology. Developing a quantitative framework to understand mechanical transformations in cancer cells could provide a deeper understanding of cell nucleus shape and mechanics, as well as methods for early detection and mechanical-based therapeutic approaches.

Amy Rowat is Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology & Physiology. She is also affiliated faculty with the UCLA Bioengineering Department, the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Broad Stem Cell Research Center. completed her undergraduate studies at Mount Allison University, Canada (B.Sc. Honours Physics, 1998; B.A. Asian Studies, French, & Math, 1999) and her graduate work at MEMPHYS – Center for Biomembrane Physics at the Technical University of Denmark (M.Sc. Chemistry, 2000) and the University of Southern Denmark (Ph.D. Physics, 2005). She was a Human Frontiers Cross-Disciplinary Fellow at the Department of Physics/School of Engineering & Applied Science at Harvard University in the laboratory of David Weitz.

Yaroslav Tserkovnyak completed his Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University in 2003. Following a stint as a Harvard Junior Fellow, he has been on the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles, since 2006. His main interests are the theory of quantum transport and nonequilibrium dynamics in magnetic, spintronic, and low-dimensional systems, both in the solid state and other complex media (such as biological membranes).

Shimon Weiss received his PhD from the Technion in Electrical Engineering in 1989. After a one year post doctorate at AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he worked on ultrafast phenomena in semiconducting devices, he joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a staff scientist in 1990, where he continued to work on solid state spectroscopy. In 1994 he re-directed his interest to single molecule biophysics. In 2001 he joined UCLA Chemistry and Physiology departments and the California NanoSystems Institute.

The Weiss lab has been working on ultrasensitive single molecule spectroscopy methods for over 15 years. They were the first to introduce the single molecule FRET method and together with the Alivisatos group the first to introduced quantum dots to biological imaging. They have also developed a variety of novel detectors for advanced imaging and spectroscopy, a novel superresolution imaging method dubbed SOFI, and novel optical imaging tools for single cell physiology.

Gerard Wong is interested in a multi-disciplinary approach to engaging unsolved problems in biology and biomedicine, combining physics, chemistry, and biology. Recent topics of research include physics of biological self assembly (ex: membranes, DNA, proteins), soft condensed matter physics of polymers, polyelectrolytes, liquid crystals, colloids, nanoparticles. Specific projects include antimicrobial peptides for antibiotic resistant pathogens, cell penetrating peptides for drug delivery, bacterial biofilms and sociomicrobiology, therapeutic strategies in cystic bifrosis, apoptosis proteins and cancer, femtosecond movies of hydration shells. The group is inherently interdisciplinary; our collaborations include theoretical and experimental physicists, chemists, materials scientists, biologists, medical doctors, as well as bioengineers. The group uses a wide range of experimental techniques including, quantitative, ultra-high resolution synchroton x-ray scattering and spectroscopy, x-ray and electron microscopy, optical traps, cell tracking algorithms, laser-scanning confocal microscopy, and fluorescence and video-enhanced optical microscopy. Wong received his BS degree in Physics from Caltech and his PhD in Physics from UC Berkeley. He subsequently pursued postdoctoral research on soft matter physics at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam, and on biophysics at UC Santa Barbara. Wong’s awards include an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and a Beckman Young Investigator Award. Wong represented the U.S. in the NSF-MEXT US-Japan Young Scientist Symposium on Nanobiotechnology (2005), the Taipei Academia Sinica International Workshop on Soft Matter and Biophysics (2007), and the NSF-DST US-India Nanoscience & Engineering Workshop (2008). In 2011, Wong was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Physical Review E, and Current Opinion in Solid State & Materials Science.

Giovanni Zocchi’s early research was in nonlinear dynamics, instabilities, and turbulence; he then shifted his research to Biological Physics around 1996. Coming from the Physics of Complex Systems, he naturally seeks properties which display a degree of universality, rather than detail descriptions of system specific processes. He and others believe that such universality often leads to simple, beautiful mathematical descriptions.

One universal feature of the working of enzymes and DNA is mechano – chemical coupling: correspondingly, mechano – chemistry is the present focus of the lab.

Giovanni Zocchi studied Physics at the Universita’ di Pisa and Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy (Laurea 1985). He obtained a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago (1990), under the guidance of Albert Libchaber. He was a postdoc at Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, France (1990 to 1993), then a Research Faculty at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark (1994 to 1999). On the eve of the Millennium he joined the Physics and Astronomy Dept. at UCLA as Assistant Professor, advancing to Associate Prof. in 2005 and Professor in 2010.