Research Topics

Multicellular control of bacterial populations

Feedback is a key mechanism in biology and synthetic systems, enabling robustness and adaptability. While current synthetic biology controllers use feedback at the single-cell level, this limits complexity due to resource competition and chemical incompatibilities. To address these issues, my research investigated how distributing feedback control across multiple cell populations in a microbial consortium can allow for greater flexibility and scalability.

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Composition control of microbial communities

Microbial communities in nature often function as consortia, where different populations cooperate and divide labor to enhance efficiency and survival. However, engineering such consortia requires mechanisms to ensure long-term coexistence and proper function of the consortium. To achieve this goal, I investigated strategies to regulate the relative abundance of each population - a concept known as composition or ratiometric control.

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Modeling, analysis and control of large-scale systems

Complex networks are dynamical systems where large ensembles of agents interact with each other, giving rise to emergent collective behaviors. Devising and parametrizing descriptive models for these systems is a challenging task, as it requires capturing the key dynamical features of each agent, as well as how they interact with their environment. In my research, I focused on devising and parametrizing models for complex networks in different contexts, enabling the design and validation of control strategies that can orchestrate the collectiv behavior of the population.

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