Instructors & Speakers

François Nédélec, the creator of CytoSim, is a group leader at the Sainsbury Laboratory at The University of Cambridge. His team researches the role of the cytoskeleton in cell and developmental biology using synthetic and systems biology approaches, and computer modelling.

Daniel Cortes is an assistant professor of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. The Cortes lab combines experiments and computer modelling to study the coordination between spindle-driven chromosome segregation and contractile ring-driven membrane ingression during division.

Julio Belmonte is an assistant professor of Physics at NC State. His group uses theoretical and computational approaches to study the physical principles behind cell mechanics and how they give rise to force production and pattern formation

Ana Carvalho is a group leader at the i3S institute in Porto. The main interest of the Carvalho lab lies in understanding the regulation, organization and dynamics of acto-myosin contractile networks. Her team uses the nematode C. elegans to study how the contractile ring functions during cytokinesis and how actin cytoskeleton reorganizes during development.

Mary Elting is an associate professor of Physics at NC State. Her lab combines approaches from physics, biology, and engineering to ask how biological molecules self-assemble into cellular-scale machinery that transduces force and performs mechanical functions.

Caroline Laplante is an associate professor at the Molecular Biomedical Sciences at NC State. The Laplante lab combines genetics in both single and multicellular organisms, molecular biology, microfabrication, quantitative confocal microscopy and single molecule localization super-resolution microscopy to investigate the fundamental question of how proteins organize in tensile force generating machineries.

Amy Shaub Maddox is a professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Madoox lab combines high-resolution microscopy, quantitative image analysis, cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, and developmental biology to study the cytoskeleton and cell shape changes.

Ehssan Nazockdast is an assistant professor in the Applied Physical Sciences department at UNC Chapel Hill. The Nazockdast group uses theoretical and computational methods from fluid dynamics and soft matter physics to study self-organization and mechanics of cellular structures.

James Sellers is a senior investigator at NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute . The Sellers’ lab brings together a breadth of experience in fields such as developmental biology, biochemistry, cell biology, biophysics, and engineering and encompasses studies of systems ranging from single molecules to fruit fly models (Drosophila melanogaster). His lab is focused on studying myosin diversity as a means of understanding meaningful molecular differences that give rise to disparate functions.

Kimberly Weirich is an assistant professor at the Materials Science and Engineering department at Clemson University. The Weirich lab is interested in the physical mechanisms that underlie the ability of biological materials to self-organize and spontaneously change shape.

Micheal Norman is a graduate student at the Belmonte group. Their research focuses on the formation and contraction of contractile ring and the physical and geometric requirements that determines the onset of global vs local contraction of cytoskeletal networks.