Personal motivation: My research interests lie in the physics of living systems. I am fascinated by how effective physics is at reducing the material world to compact equations. When it comes to living systems, their huge complexity seemingly poses a barrier towards finding unifying principles. Yet I believe it is possible to strip down this complexity to its essential elements to understand biological systems with the same depth and rigor physics has brought to our understanding of non-living matter.

Group’s focus: Our aim is to discover general principles that govern living systems using theoretical and computational tools, while remaining close to experimental data, collaborating with experimental groups. We are currently focused on the dynamics of microbial communities, combining theory and data analysis to understand microbiome-environment and host-microbiome relations. Therefore, we also consider the host immune system and how its cells communicate with the microbiome.

Research Focus