Research Areas

Research in the Biological Physics Group concentrates on self-organization and cooperative behavior in cellular systems. In particular, we focus on the study cell motility and chemotaxis in both eukaryotic and bacterial systems. Besides stochastic descriptions of cell trajectories, we investigate the dynamics of chemotactic signaling pathways and the actin cytoskeleton in well-controlled single cell experiments. Microfluidic tools, in combination with fluorescence microscopy and micromanipulation techniques, play an essential role to achieve our goals. Moreover, we are interested in general questions of nonlinear dynamics and pattern formation, also beyond the biological context.