The Vergassola Group
Massimo Vergassola - Curriculum Vitae
- Statistical physics
- Physical and computational biology
- Fluid dynamics
- Complex fluids
- Pattern formation
- Hydrodynamic models for the formation of cosmological large-scale structures
- Cellular Automata, Lattice Gas
Jérôme Wong Ng
"I am currently a Project scientist in Massimo Vergassola's lab at UCSD. After studying soft matter physics in Paris, I moved into the physical/quantitative biology field for my PhD with Didier Chatenay. I then joined Massimo Vergassola's group in the Pasteur Institute (Paris) for my post-doc. As the lab relocated to San Diego, I felt that I could use some sun in my daily life and squeezed into one of the boxes. I have been developping and conducting experiments on bacterial chemotaxis and adaptation. More recently optimal strategies for soaring/gliding has piqued my interests. You can find a tiny bit more here."
Research: Bacterial Chemotaxis, Microfluidics, Signal transduction, Adaptation, Optimal Soaring
Email: jwongng@ucsd.edu
- Optical monitoring of neuronal activity at high frame rate with a digital Random-Access MultiPhoton (RAMP) microscope; Otsu Yo, Bormuth V, Wong J, Mathieu B, Dugué GP , Feltz A , Dieudonné S ; Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2008, 173, 259-270.
- Plasmid copy number noise in monoclonal populations of bacteria. ; Wong Ng J, Chatenay D, Robert J, Poirier MG.; Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys., 2010, 81, 011909.
- Non-invasive inference of the molecular chemotaxis response from bacterial trajectories. Masson JB*, Voisinne G*, Wong Ng J*, Celani A and Vergassola M, Proc. Nat. Academy Sciences, 2012, 109 ,1802-7. (* equal contributors)
- The role of adaptation in bacterial speed races. Wong Ng J, Melbinger A, Celani A and Vergassola M, PLOS Comp Biol 12(6): e1004974, 2016
Anna Melbinger
"I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in Massimo Vergassola's group at University of California, San Diego where our lab moved from Institute Pasteur, Paris. With a background in theoretical physics and a strong interest in biological questions, I try to work at the boarder of those two disciplines."
Research: Evolutionary Dynamics, Role of fitness, Cooperation in bacterial populations
Email: amelbinger@ucsd.edu
- A. Melbinger, L. Reese and E. Frey Microtubule Length Regulation by Molecular Motors, Phys. Rev. Lett 108 258104 (2012) [Arxiv]
- J. Cremer, A. Melbinger and E. Frey Growth dynamics and the evolution of cooperation in microbial populations, Sci. Rep. 2, 281 (2012) [Arxiv]
- A. Melbinger, J. Cremer and E. Frey Evolutionary Game Theory in Growing Populations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105 178101 (2010) [Arxiv]
Gautam Reddy
"After my undergraduate in engineering physics from IIT Bombay, and a brief stint exploring bacterial cell physiology, I joined Massimo's group in April, 2014. My current interests include understanding how certain biological organisms navigate complex, turbulent environments. Particularly, I'm interested in understanding the thermal soaring of birds and the olfactory searches of insects. The underlying theme is to figure out how living beings under strong selective pressure solve the general exploration and exploitation trade-off that constitutes most navigation problems in uncertain environments. To answer these questions, we collaborate with experimentalists and use modern tools from machine learning and the physics of turbulent transport to model decision-making in noisy conditions. From a more theoretical viewpoint, I'm also interested in extracting general features of optimal search strategies in uncertain environments and developing simple approximations to otherwise complicated optimal policies."
Research: Exploration and exploitation, Biological navigation, Thermal soaring, Olfactory searches
Email: gnallama@physics.ucsd.edu
- Infomax strategies for an optimal balance between exploration and exploitation. G. Reddy, A. Celani & Vergassola, M.J Stat Phys (2016) 163: 1454.
- Learning to soar in turbulent environments. G. Reddy, A. Celani, T.J. Sejnowski & M. Vergassola. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. published ahead of print August 1, 2016
Alessandro Sanzeni
"I am a Phd candidate in physics at the University of Milan (Italy), where in 2012 I obtained my master's degree. Since 2013 I have been several times a visiting graduate students in Massimo Vergassola's group, now at the University of California, San Diego. I am interested in neurobiological problems, which I approach with methods from theoretical physics. At the moment, my main projects focus on grid cells and on somatosensation. Grid cells are neurons thought to be at the basis of spatial cognition. I am investigating the effect of functional constraints on the underlying neural circuit. Somatosensation is based on specific types of neurons activated by mechanical stimuli. I am studying how the ionic channels of these neurons are gated by external forces and which is the role of the tissue mechanics in the process."
Research: Neurophysics, Grid cells, Somatosensation, Tissue mechanics
Email: alessandro.sanzeni@unimi.it
- Tissue mechanics govern the rapidly adapting and symmetrical response to touch. A.L. Eastwood, A. Sanzeni, B.C. Petzold, S.-J. Park, M. Vergassola, B.L. Pruitt & M.B. Goodman. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 112(50):E6955-63 , 2015 (Featured in UCSD News)
- Classical microscopic theory of polaritons in ionic crystals. A. Lerose, A. Sanzeni, A. Carati and L. Galgani. Eur. Phys. J. D 68 , 35 (2014).