Boedicker Lab: Biophysics of Microbial Ecosystems

Email:	boedicke@usc.edu
Office Location:	SSC 223
Office Phone:	(213) 740-1104
Lab Location:	SSC 212
Lab Phone:	(213) 740-0871
Website:	Boedicker Lab
Ph.D. Programs:	Physics and Molecular Biology

The Boedicker Lab is interested in understanding the rules that make complex networks of microbes work. Microbial communities play an important role in our everyday lives, and our lab aims to increase their benefit to society by developing experimental and theoretical tools to control, predict, and design the functional outputs of both synthetic and natural microbial ecosystems. Towards this goal, we have been developing predictive and quantitative models of biological decision making, using the tools of synthetic biology to test and expand our understanding of gene regulation, and investigating the role of microscale spatial structure on signal exchange and interspecies gene regulation.

Figure 1: Interactions within microbial communities are analyzed by bringing together multiple species of microbes on microfluidic devices. By varying the composition and spatial distribution of the community, we probe how networks of cells coordinate activity through the exchange of signals and metabolites.

Figure 2: Using a combination of theoretical biophysics and synthetic biology, we dissect how individual cells make regulatory decisions. Validation of model predictions by tuning regulatory parameters in real cells enables us to develop a quantitative and predictive understanding of how cellular outputs are encoded in the genome.