Our research centers on the application of chemical engineering principles to the study of fundamental problems in biology and medicine. In particular, we focus on the biochemical and biophysical mechanisms a cell uses to sense, respond to, and interact with its environment. This communication between cells and their surroundings is critical not only to normal mammalian cell function but also to the detection of foreign invaders (immunology) and the response to drugs (pharmacology). An ability to quantitatively understand and manipulate these mechanisms is thus crucial to many areas of modern biotechnology.

Receptors, specialized glycoproteins embedded in the membranes of nearly all cells, are responsible for much of the communication between a cell and its environment. Receptors have high affinity binding sites for molecules termed ligands (e.g. hormones, antibodies, drugs) in the cell's local environment. The binding of a ligand to its receptor can result in signal transduction, the translation of the binding event into an intracellular sequence of reactions and an eventual response (e.g. growth, differentiation, contraction, secretion). These receptor-mediated events are critical to both single cell and whole organism function.

While it is clear that cell receptors need to be bound by ligands in order to initiate a cellular response, the details following that binding are murky. The entire field of signal transduction is exploding in terms of data but lacking in any real understanding of the role that reaction kinetics and diffusion play, for example. We use both experimental and theoretical approaches to understand receptor-mediated phenomena. The impact of this work is in the fields of biology, engineering, mathematical/theoretical biology, pharmacology, biophysics, and bioinformatics.