My research interests over the years have shifted from physics to biology, as I seek out more interdisciplinary connections. I enjoy my current project with biofilms, since it combines scientists from the physics, chemistry, and biology departments, as well as the medical school and the German chemical company BASF.

I'm currently studying highly-organized colonies of bacteria, called biofilms. Before grad school, I typically thought of bacteria as microscopic, single-celled organisms that swam around in search of nutrients. Now I reaize that they frequently attach themselves to surfaces and form structured communities that provide better access to nutrients and resistance against anti-microbials. This can lead to all types of problems, such as infections in hospitals and bio-fouling on ocean-faring ships.

Since my bacgkround in physics, I'm looking at the bacteria from a more mechanical perspective. For instance, how does the distribution of nutrients and elastic stresses in a colony lead to its particular structure? I hope that a more quantitative understanding of biofilm growth could lead to new advances in ways to promote the spread of beneficial biofilms and the removal of virulent ones.

Between undergraduate and graduate school, I spent ten months working for Prof. Yan Jie in the Physics Department at the National University of Singapore. The lab focused on studies of the mechanical properties of single strands of DNA and how they can bind to various proteins. The DNA in a single, microscopic cell can be several centimeters to meters long and it's still not fully understood how such a long molecules can fit within the relatively small nuclues of a cell. The traditional view is that the DNA wraps around spool-shaped molecules (called histones) in the nuclues.

As an undergrad, I worked in two different labs. I started in Prof. Hari Manoharan' laboratory to help develop an atomic force micrscope based on a quartz tuning fork crystal. Later, in Prof. Moerner's lab, I worked on the software that controlled the Anti-Brownian Electrokinetic Trap developed by Adam Cohen, now an Assistant Professor at Harvard.