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Academic Qualifications

Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

Research Areas

Mechanobiology of cells and tissues on viscoelastic surfaces, nanoscale dynamics, biomaging sciences.

Research

The lab studies the role of mechanics in epithelial tissue migration and remodeling during development and disease. The organization and migration of epithelial tissues are sensitive to the underlying substratum, especially on visco-elastic substrates. This range of stiffness defines the environment of most basement membranes, cell-cell interactions, and early developmental processes. On the one hand, we are interested in the mechanical signatures of the development of chirality, convergence, and extension during the early steps in morphogenesis of the Zebrafish embryo. Other studies are focused on the role of substrate viscoelasticity in tissue remodeling during disease and its regulation by cell-matrix and cell-cell signaling pathways. In order to study complex, multi-scale dynamics we develop and apply novel imaging methods such as in situ TEM and strain light-sheet microscopy. 

Biography

Formerly a biology and bioengineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Whitehead Institute, Paul Matsudaira has studied the cytoskeleton since graduating from college. He was the EM technician of Tom Schroeder where he helped investigate the role of microfilaments in the contractile ring. For his graduate studies with Dave Burgess he described the structure and function of the intestine brush border cytoskeleton. Following postdoctoral research on the assembly of actin bundles at the MPI Biophysical Chemistry with Klaus Weber and the MRC LMB with Alan Weeds, Paul started his academic career at the Whitehead Institute and MIT where his lab studied biophysics of actin and other polymer protein bundles, mechanics of polymers and single cells motility, and developed microanalytical methods. In 2009, he moved to Singapore to establish the Centre for BioImaging Sciences, head the Department of Biological Sciences, and cofound the Mechanobiology Institute. Outside of academia, he co-founded ANDE, a DNA forensics company, and Paratus Sciences, a biotech company.

Selected Publications (five of 190)

1. Tavakoli, S., Zhu S., and P. Matsudaira. 2022 Cell clusters containing intestinal stem cells, line the zebrafish intestine intervillus pocket. iScience 104280:1-12 

2. Dipanjan Bhattacharya, Jun Zhong, Sahar Tavakoli, Alexandre Kabla, and Paul Matsudaira. 2021 Strain maps characterize the symmetry of convergence and extension during Zebrafish gastrulation. Scientific Reports 11:19357. 

3. Zheng J, Han SP, Chiu YJ, Yip AK, Boichat N, Pauli AR, Zhu S, Matsudaira P. 2017 Substrate viscoelasticity induces coalescence of epithelial monolayers via subcellular redistribution of vinculin. Biophys J. 113:1585-98.

4. Loh D, Sen S, Bosman M, Tan SF, Zhong J, Nijhuis C, Kral P, Matsudaira P, Mirsaidov U. 2016 Multi-step nucleation of nanocrystals in aqueous solution. Nat. Chem 9:77-82.

5. Bhattacharya D, Singh V R, Zhi C, Peter T C, Matsudaira P, Barbastathis G. 2012. Three dimensional HiLo-based structured illumination for a Digital Scanned Laser Sheet Microscopy (DSLM) in thick tissue imaging. Optics Express 20(25):27337-27347.