BioPhysics

The OSU Biophysics group aims to address problems of biological significance using Physics methods. Cutting edge experimental methods enable highly quantitative measurements on biological systems, while computational methods provide the opportunity to explore the consequences of diverse microscopic models of biological systems. The expertise of the group covers processes on all length and time scales of Biology from femtosecond electron or proton transfer processes in enzymes over RNA and chromatin structure, membrane invaginations, cell movement, mechanobiology of development, the behavior of the immune system, all the way to ecological questions.

The range of physical tools is similarly broad including single molecule spectroscopy, superresolution imaging, femtosecond spectroscopy, magnetic manipulation, DNA nanotechnology, statistical physics, genomics, differential equation models, and machine learning. The experimental labs not only characterize biological samples, but have the expertise to prepare their own samples as well. 

The Biophysics Group is highly interdisciplinary. There is close collaboration between experimentalists and theorists as well as between the OSU Biophysics group in general and colleagues across campus in the colleges of Arts & Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering. Faculty in the Biophysics Group are members and play leading roles in a number interdisciplinary programs and centers including the Biophysics Graduate Program, the Ohio State Biochemistry Graduate Program, NIH T32 training grants (Molecular Biophysics Training Program, and the Cellular, Molecular, and Biochemical Sciences  Program), the Center for RNA Biology, the OSU Nationwide Epigenetics Group, the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Center for Cancer Engineering.

The group is funded by NIH, NSF, DOE and industry, and has received a number of awards including NSF CAREER awards, NIH MIRA awards, the Packard award, and APS fellows. The group has a strong publication record including publications in high impact journals such as Science, Nature Communications, Nature Methods, PNAS, JACS, and Physical Review Letters. Many former trainees of the group have gone on to great academic (Princeton University, Mayo Clinic, Oregon State University, Xavier University, Indiana University East Richmond, and many international institutions) and industry positions (e.g., Illumina, Intel, Chromologic, Battelle, Google, Twitter, Indeed). Overall, the Biophysics Group provides a vibrant intellectual environment to answer the questions of modern Biology with physical methods.