My research

A central interest of my research is studying the importance of functional heterogeneity in biological systems.

Biological systems are inherently heterogeneous and no to cells are equal, even if they “do the same thing”. I am interested in understanding several aspects of this heterogeneity.

Each dot in this picture represent a pituitary cell, whose RNA has been sequenced. The colour shows expression of a gene (blue low, yellow high) important for the function of these cells, and the dots are positioned so that cells that are more similar (based on the expression of thousands of different genes) are closer together.

– How does heterogeneity arise?
– Is it a mere result of the inherently stochastic nature of biological systems or is it necessary for function?
– If all cells are different how do they manage to work together efficiently to perform their function?
– Would our bodies work as well without this heterogeneity?

I have used a variety of single-cell techniques, including imaging, electrophysiology and sequencing to investigate these questions in various biological systems.

If you want to read more, you can find the complete list of my publications on my ResearchGate or on my Google Scholar profiles.