Synthetic cellular biochemistry

Our research program integrates biochemistry, biophysics, and bottom-up synthetic biology to reconstruct minimal bacterial division assemblies from its molecular building blocks in controlled cell-like environments. This effort, which is framed on the quest of building synthetic cells from scratch, will contribute to our understanding of how cells divide and will provide new horizons for biotechnological and biomedical applications. Fields of expertise: Macromolecular interactions (protein-protein, protein-DNA, protein-membrane and protein-ligand interactions); physical biochemistry; molecular biophysics; bottom-up synthetic biology; macromolecular crowding, phase separation and surface effects on macromolecular reactivity/organization and relation to cell function; biophysical methods (analytical ultracentrifugation, light scattering, fluorescence-based and surface-sensitive assays); microfluidic production of cell-like containers