The Schoetz Laboratory:
Physics of Regeneration and Embryogenesis

My lab is interested in the physical properties of biological materials and how these properties influence processes such as regeneration, wound healing 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.

Information for:

Undergraduates

Graduate students

Postdocs

Lab News:

Pancho Mulongeni was performing at Berlind Theater at the Spring Dance festival 2009!

Upcoming Meetings:

I2CAM workshop on soft active matter, Syracuse University (May 18-21, 2009)