Michael B. Elowitz Research Group

California Institute of Technology

How can engineered gene circuits and quantitative single-cell analysis reveal design principles that control cell fate, communication, and memory in multicellular mammalian systems? Researchers create and analyze fully synthetic molecular circuits to provide new cellular capabilities and test circuit designs. Researchers reconstitute core pathways in minimal cell culture systems and quantitatively analyze their behavior at the single cell level. Researchers combine synthetic biology and mathematical modeling to measure dynamical variability and noise in developmental and cell–cell signaling pathways. Researchers focus on intercellular communication, computation, and memory needed to bring synthetic biology to multicellular systems.