Our Philosophy: Create, Reveal, Heal
The beauty of the biological world inspires us to build tools that uncover fundamental truths and translate them into precise therapeutic interventions. This vision drives everything we do. Our mission is built on three pillars:
Create: engineer novel molecular and cellular tools
Reveal: illuminate hidden mechanisms in health and disease
Heal: develop dynamic, controllable therapies for precision medicine
1. Probing Intracellular Mechanobiology
We are pioneering a new frontier in cellular mechanobiology by asking a fundamental question: how do mechanical forces govern the inner world of the cell?
While classical mechanobiology has largely focused on the plasma membrane and extracellular signaling, we recognize a critical blind spot—the intracellular space. Organelles, cytoskeletal networks, and the crowded cytoplasmic environment are all subject to physical forces that remain poorly understood.
Our vision is to illuminate the biomechanical and biophysical landscape within cells. To achieve this, we innovate cutting-edge toolkits to map how mechanical communication orchestrates subcellular organization and function.
By probing the labyrinthine, crowded, and highly dynamic intracellular world, we aim to: (1) Uncover new principles of cellular self-organization; (2) Reveal how mechanical dysregulation contributes to disease; (3) Identify novel therapeutic targets rooted in organelle mechanics. This work opens entirely new perspectives on health and disease, bridging the gap between physical forces and biological function.
2. Engineering Dynamic Gene Therapies
Current gene therapies are largely static—once administered, they operate continuously without fine control. We envision a paradigm shift: gene therapies that can be turned on, off, or finely adjusted using simple, precise molecular switches.
Our vision is to develop the next generation of dynamically controlled gene therapy strategies. By engineering synthetic regulatory systems responsive to small molecules, light, or other external cues, we aim to create therapies that adapt in real time to patient needs.
This new precision medicine paradigm addresses the limitations of static approaches by enabling: (1) Real-time, personalized control tailored to individual patient responses; (2) Flexible dosing to manage slowly progressive or chronic diseases; (3) Reduced off-target effects through temporal and spatial precision. Our work combines synthetic biology, protein engineering, and delivery technologies to build therapeutic systems that are as dynamic as the diseases they aim to treat.