Joshua W. Shaevitz

Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics
Princeton University

Curriculum Vitae

My publications as listed on PubMed

Research

Lab Webpage: http://genomics.princeton.edu/shaevitzlab

I am interested in the role that mechanical forces plays in biology, particularly how nanometer-sized proteins are used to generate cellular-level forces on the micron-scale. Lately, I have been studying how cytoskeletal filaments are used to define intracellular organization, cell shape, mechanics and motility in bacteria. It was recently discovered that bacteria use homologs of the eukaryotic proteins actin and tubulin to guide a number of cellular processes, however physical details of these processes have been lacking due to the minuscule size of most bacterial cells. My lab is developing new experimental techniques that combine mechanical perturbation of cells and molecules with visualization of key protein and macromolecular structures to explore the physical side of these topics. Our toolbox includes unique combinations of optical microscopy, optical trapping, atomic force microscopy, as well as biophysical modeling and simulation.

Teaching

Fall 2009: PHY412 Biological Physics

I will be teaching an undergraduate course in Biological Physics to be offered during the Fall semester. The course, numbered PHY 412, will touch on energetics, forces and mechanics from proteins to organisms. The course offering can be found here: Course Offerings (search for PHY 412).

Fall 2009: ISC231-CHM231 An Integrated, Quantitative Introduction to the Natural Sciences I

I will be teaching in our integrated science course (Blackboard course link). General information about the course is here.

My office hours are Tuesdays, 3-5pm.

Advising

Information about doing a JP or senior thesis with me can be found here.

Cycling

I like cycling ...

My current ride is a 2006 Bianchi Volpe - a touring bike with a large capacilty to carry a ton of stuff (kids, groceries, bags of cement, etc.). I have it laid out with both front (Jandd lowrider, I highly recommend it) and rear racks. Here's a picture of someone else's volpe that looks like mine, although mine has flashy red handle-bar tape and red tires. Someday I'll get around to posting an actual picture of my bike ...