Scott Coyle
Credentials: Assistant Professor
Position title: Biochemistry
My group is taking a reverse-engineering approach to model cell behavior as the output a microscopic robot driven by patterns of activity acting on different configurations of modular components. Tracking single cell dynamics over hours, days, or even weeks reveals structure that can be computationally extracted to produce a quantitative description of cell behavior. Such descriptions provide a basis to probe behavior under different environments, genetic perturbations, or cell backgrounds and relate specific features of behavior to molecular components like the cytoskeleton or signaling systems. Combining these approaches with synthetic signaling receptors that we design using protein engineering, we aim to reprogram cells to generate new systems with novel functions, expanded behavioral repertoires and broad utility.