Schoetz Lab

Biophysics of Embryonic Development, Regeneration and Asexual Reproduction.

My lab is interested in the physical properties of biological materials and how these properties influence processes such as regeneration, wound healing, asexual reproduction in metazoans - and embryonic development. These biological processes pose an interesting problem for biophysicists, since the complex cell rearrangements and tissue dynamics they invlove have to be robust against environmental changes, suggesting that generic physical mechanisms play an important role.

In order to understand the complexity of tissue structure and dynamics, we address this problem on multiple length scales: From the underlying molecular machinery to the physical properties of the cytoskeleton and the cell membrane that determine the structure and migratory behavior of individual cells, to the mechanisms of the adhesion machinery that governs cell-cell-interaction in the tissue, up to the physical properties of multicellular aggregates, tissues and whole organisms.

We combine tools from physics, material science, genetics and molecular biology to gain a better understanding of the forces driving cell movement and tissue formation during embryogenesis in zebrafish and planarians (flatworms), as well as during wound healing and regeneration in planarians and hydras.

[eschoetz@princeton.edu]
Address:170 Carl-Icahn Lab
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Lab Phone: 609-258-0603



Lab News

Our workshop summary on nightscience is now published in the ICASE May newsletter.Newsletter_0512

Dawn and Mark are joining the lab this summer. Welcome!

Eva-Maria talked at The Future of Biophysics Burroughs Wellcome Fund Symposium at the Biophysical Society meeting in San Diego. More info here: Program .

January 5, 2012: Eva-Maria received the Martin and Beate Block award in Aspen.

The registration for the 2012 Hands-On Research in Complex Systems School in Shanghai is now OPEN, see flyer .

Eva-Maria received the Burroughs Wellcome CASI award . For more information see the BWF website .

Sofi's paper appeared in the J. Stat. Phys. 142, 1324-1336 (2011)

Jared's paper appeared online in the Journal of Experimental Biology. 2011 Apr 1;214(Pt 7):1063-7.

Our article on population dynamics has been selected for inclusion in IOP select.

Eva-Maria and Sofia are trying to raise 16,000 US$ for a science camp for girls in Buea, Cameroon, for May 2012. Click HERE for more info!



Upcoming Meetings and Workshops


Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, San Diego, USA
February 24-29, 2012