Huge thanks to @schmidtsciences.bsky.social and the @bwfund.bsky.social CASI award; and especially to my parents, partner and extended village across two countries.

More soon! 8/8

I’m deeply grateful to mentors Ganesh Subramanian, Manu Prakash @prakashlab.bsky.social , Dan Fletcher @fletcherlabucb.bsky.social and Nicole King. 7/8

We’re hiring! Searches for a research technician and postdoc will open soon for spring 2027 starts. I’d also love to hear from current Berkeley grads interested in rotations/co-mentored projects, and prospective students applying to Berkeley MechE for fall 2027. 6/8

To make these hidden phenomena measurable, we’ll take a "build it if it doesn’t exist" approach: multiscale microscopy, high-throughput force manipulation and molecular biophysics tools. We’ll bring experiments, theory and computation together across biophysics, engineering and ocean science. 5/8

We’ll also study how interactions among microbes and their environment cascade through ocean ecosystems. We will explore how cells move, adhere and interact with fluid flows to shape carbon-carrying particles that sink through the ocean and help regulate carbon transport. 4/8

One initial focus will be loricate choanoflagellates. We aim to establish these remarkable single-celled critters as a model for biomaterial assembly, adhesion “in the wild,” biomineralization and bottom-up manufacturing. 3/8

Microbes sustain life on our planet. The Deep Lab will ask how interactions between microbes, biomaterials and fluid flows give rise to structures that shape ecosystems and climate, from cell-directed biomaterial assembly to carbon transport through the ocean. 2/8

@thibautbrunet.bsky.social I can confirm this finding. They just keep expanding!!

OMG! This is insane, and something I have wondered about ever since the last choanoCon. Crazy that you guys have demonstrayed ExM in loricates and the structure actually expands without rupturing. Would love to chat more since this tallies with some of our mechanics measurements!

This was a great talk, so interesting !

This story highlights the ever-present tension between the way of "observation" (you can learn a lot by just watching) and "measurement" (which invokes in some sense a perturbation of what is measured)... But, why should one choose? To me as a scientist, there is joy and power in both approaches!

This video (linked in the above blog as well) from Mary Silver is also fascinating
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WB-...