Vision / Research
Biology is often captured as a sequence of static snapshots. We seek to understand the transient states between those snapshots: where they arise, how long they persist, and how they shape cell behaviour.
Scientific premise
Cells continuously reorganise molecular interactions, signalling assemblies, organelles and mechanical structures. These changes can be local, short-lived and heterogeneous, yet they determine how cells sense their environment and choose a response.
Our research asks how such states can be observed directly in living systems and connected to mechanism. Tool development follows from that question, rather than serving as an endpoint of its own.
Research programmes
Immune response
Immune responses emerge from signals assembled and remodelled in specific cellular locations. We investigate how molecular activity is coordinated in macrophages, podosomes and immune synapses, and how local organisation shapes cell behaviour.
Neuronal activation
Neuronal activation reaches beyond the membrane and cytoplasm to reshape molecular organisation inside the nucleus. We study how phosphorylation and biomolecular condensation influence nuclear speckles, nucleolar organisation and other dynamic nuclear states.
Mechanobiology
Cells experience force through adhesion, cytoskeletal tension, membrane deformation and the surrounding matrix. We study how these physical inputs reorganise molecular states and propagate from force-bearing structures toward cellular decisions.
Protein design
We design biosensors, actuators and binders computationally, then test them directly in living cells — closing the loop between what a measurement requires and what a molecule can do.
How we work
Follow processes as they unfold instead of inferring dynamics from fixed endpoints.
Connect observation to mechanism through controlled changes in molecular state, location and timing.
Relate molecular events to subcellular organisation, cellular behaviour and system-level responses.