Jan Liphardt PhD, Center Director and PI, is an Associate Prof. of Physics at UC Berkeley. His background is single-molecule biophysics and thermodynamics of small systems. The goal of his research is to learn how biological systems function. Systems under investigation range from the self-organisation of receptors in membranes, the transport of cargos through biological pores, and the control of the DNA loopscape in the nucleus. Typically, research in his lab involves super-resolution light microscopy, optical tweezers, or optical control strategies.

Valerie Weaver PhD, Center Senior Co-Investigator and Co-Director, is an Associate Prof. in the Department of Surgery and Anatomy and Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the UCSF. Her group studies the molecular mechanisms whereby extracellular matrix receptors, mechanical force, and matrix topology modulate normal and transformed cell behavior and alter embryonic cell fate. The research involves bioengineered matrices, microscopy techniques (traction force microscopy, atomic force microscopy, second harmonic generation microscopy...), cell biology and animal work.

Joe Gray PhD is the Director of the Life Sciences Division at LBNL and the PI of the LBNL ICBP (Integrative Cancer Biology Program). He is a pioneer in characterizing the genomic, transcriptional and proteomic abnormalities that occur in selected cancers.

Frank McCormick PhD is the Director of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He will analyze signaling complexes involving Ras proteins at the plasma membrane at the molecular level. This will include stoichiometry of Ras proteins and their effectors, in resting and active states, and proteins that regulate determine these dynamic transitions.

Jay Groves PhD. The Groves lab focuses on chemistry in complex environments where, for example, collective properties of the system feedback onto the molecular scale chemical events. Such multi-scale coupling is widespread in biological systems, from dynamical movements within a protein to morphological transitions of whole cells. The lab pursues a variety of research projects emphasizing physical mechanisms of molecular self-organization and the role of spatial patterning as a regulator of differential outcomes from otherwise chemically equivalent systems.

Mina Bissell PhD pioneered the idea that a cancer cell's microenvironment influences whether it becomes a cancer cell. Her lab aims to establish the fundamental morphological and force dynamics of tissue reversion in breast cancer cell lines.

Dan Fletcher PhD. We study the effect of external forces on the movement and organization of cells and tissues. Using a custom gel compression system, we will investigate the role of stress, strain, and loading history on tumor reversion.

Claire Tomlin PhD is a Professor in the Berkeley EECS department. She studies control theory; hybrid and embedded systems; and biological cell networks.

Sanjay Kumar MD PhD. We study how cells sense, process, and respond to mechanical and other biophysical signals in their environment. Using a combination of single-cell imaging and mechanics methods, materials fabrication, and computational modeling, we investigate both fundamental mechanisms that underlie cellular mechanotransduction and roles this mode of signaling may play in tumor and stem cell biology.

Gerard Marriott PhD. The Marriott lab designs and uses new optical probes and microscope imaging techniques to investigate protein function and dynamics over a hierarchy of organizational levels, ranging from single molecules to cells within animals.

Hana El-Samad PhD. Our research is poised at the interface of biology, mathematics, dynamical systems, and control theory. We work on the premise that the application of the appropriate mathematical tools to the investigation of cellular networks, when coupled with iterative rounds of experiments, will dramatically accelerate the pace of biological discoveries.

Hope S. Rugo, MD, is Professor of Medicine at UCSF and Director of the UCSF Breast Oncology Clinical Trials Program. Dr. Rugo is the lead of our education and outreach program.

Denise Wolf, PhD, is a scientist at LBNL. She uses NCI and other existing data in conjunction with the data generated in the center to construct signal transduction network level models of tumor reversion, to be integrated with the physical, morphological scale models developed by Jamie Sethian and Sylvain Costes.

Sylvain Costes, PhD, is a scientist at LBNL working on modeling disruption of organized cell populations. His group is establishing agent-based models that mimic cell behavior when grown as monolayer or in three-dimensions.

James A. Sethian PhD, is Professor of Mathematics at UC Berkeley and Head of the Mathematics Department at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His work is on the construction and application of algorithms to compute the dynamics and physics of moving interfaces, especially under the effects of hydrodynamical, mechanical, and chemical forces.