Physics of Life Symposium 2024 Background

Physics of Life Symposium 2025

Margaret Gardel, Ph.D.

Keynote Speaker

When

Monday, September 8, 2025

9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. PT

Where

San Francisco, CA
(and limited virtual livestream)

Registration Closed

Living systems span multiple scales and levels of organization and display phenomena that often have no analog in the inanimate world. But for the last 500 years, physics has been focused on non-living matter. The physics of living systems is emerging as a new field, promising not only to reveal new insights about the inner workings of living systems, but also to push the limits of physics itself in the context of, for example, non-equilibrium physics and active matter research.

The Physics of Life Symposium, now the fourth such convening, aims to bring together researchers interested in leveraging the tools, approaches, and style of inquiry of physics to the complex and beautiful phenomena of life. Our objective is to nucleate a diverse and vibrant community of physical biologists in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the CZ Biohub SF as the convergence point for the exchange of ideas in an atmosphere that fosters collaborative research.

Please register to attend by Sunday, August 31. Talk abstracts should be submitted by July 31. Space is limited; register early to avoid being placed on a waitlist!

View videos from the symposium here. You can also view videos from the first Physics of Life Symposium held in January 2023 here. Subsequent Physics of Life Symposia were held in October 2023 and September 2024.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Margaret Gardel, Ph.D.

Gardel Lab

Margaret Gardel is the Horace B. Horton Professor of Physics and Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and a CZ Biohub Chicago Investigator. She is a member of the Institute for Biophysics Dynamics and currently serves as Director of the James Franck Institute. She joined the University of Chicago in 2007 after earning her Ph.D. from Harvard University with David Weitz and completing postdoctoral research as a Pappalardo Fellow at MIT and at Scripps Research Institute with Clare Waterman. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Her awards include a Packard Fellowship, Sloan Fellowship, NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, and Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics.

SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZERS

Adrian Jacobo, Ph.D.

Group Leader, Quantitative Tissue Morphogenesis at CZ Biohub SF

Hernan Garcia, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Biophysics, Genetics, Genomics and Developmental Biology at UC Berkeley

PROGRAM

(ALL TIMES IN PACIFIC TIME)

MON MONDAY

SEPTEMBER 8

Registration

8:15 am

Registration opens

8:15–9:00 am

Light breakfast available

Welcoming remarks

9:00–9:15 am

Keynote address

9:15–10:00 am

Coffee break

10:00–10:30 am

Submitted 15-minute talks

10:30 am–12:00 pm

Debraj Ghose, Harvard University
“B lymphocytes as programmable multicellular condensates”
Miriam Sun, Stanford University
“Stem cell clustering during injury promotes terminal fate commitment”
Byunghang Ha, Stanford University
“T Cells Tear Apart Confining Extracellular Matrix Via a Breaststroke-like Motion to Generate Migration Paths”
Teun Huijben, CZ Biohub SF
“Advancing Cell Tracking: From High-Performance Algorithms to Interactive Visualization”
Jia Le Lim, CZ Biohub SF
“Epithelial vulnerabilities emerge during zebrafish gastrulation under low temperatures.”
Siddhansh Agarwal, UC Berkeley
“Directed Motion Without Motors: The Hidden Physics of Influenza A Locomotion”

Lunch & poster session preview

12:00–1:30 pm

Lunch will be provided.

Submitted 15-minute talks

1:30–3:00 pm

Paula Vargas-Ruiz, UC Berkeley
“A FRET-based molecular tension sensor reveals actin-driven force dynamics in Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis”
Jason Casar, Stanford University
“Novel force sensors and their application to aging neuromuscular organs”
Keisuke Kuromiya, Stanford University School of Medicine
“Membrane hyperpolarization drives starvation-induced cell extrusions via a cytoplasmic crowding sensor in Drosophila adult intestine”
Suryanarayana Maddu, Flatiron Institute/Simons Foundation
“Active Liquid Crystal Theory of Microtubule Organization in Human Spindles”
Emmet Francis, UC San Diego
“Biophysical modeling of signaling networks in realistic cell geometries”
Eli Costa, Stanford University
“Dynamics and Mechanisms of Bifunctional Transcription Factors in Human Cells”

Coffee break

3:00–3:30 pm

Submitted 3-minute lightning talks

3:30–4:20 pm

Leanna Owen, UC Berkeley, Drubin lab
“Molecular animation of force generation by actin in clathrin-mediated endocytosis”
Aline Tschanz, UC Berkeley
“Studying sub-cellular dynamics of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in zebrafish embryos”
Jana Sipkova, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University
“The role of the cellular mechanical stress response in embryonic survival”
Xiang Zhao, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco
“ChromaTrace: Imaging and Sequencing integrated Cell Lineage Tracing in whole embryo”
Sassan Ostvar, Columbia University
“Cell-scale geometry and dynamics of neuroectodermal morphogenesis”
Joey Marcinik, Stanford University
“Tracking Subpixel Oscillations in the Auditory System using Bright-Field Microscopy”
Soumya Das, University of Southern California
“Evolutionary Game Theory and its application to Bacterial Cell Competitive Experiments”
Shivaramakrishna Srinivasan, University of California San Diego
“scImmune: Ontology-Grounded Metadata Tokenization for Immune-Specific Foundation Models”
Carly Montan Stein, Stanford University
“To Divide, or Not To Divide? Resolving Membrane Tension and Cortical Dynamics During Active Mitosis.”
Keaton Holt, UC San Diego
“Diffusive Spreading Across Dynamic Mitochondrial Network Architectures”
Bibudha Parasar, Stanford University
“Whole-genome 3D architectural screen with in-plate chromosome conformation capture (Plate-C) reveals determinants of brain DNA structure in vivo”
Yanyu Zhu, Stanford University
“High Resolution Dynamic Imaging of Chromatin DNA Communication using Oligo-LiveFISH”
Muziyue Wu, UCSF
“A self-organizing protein template for controlling membrane productions”

Closing remarks

4:20–4:30 pm

Poster session & social hour

4:30–6:00 pm

Hors d’oeuvres and beer, wine, and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided.

SUBMITTED TALKS AND POSTERS

Students, postdocs, and early career researchers (non-PIs) are encouraged to share their work via a 15-minute talk or 3-minute lightning talk (plus poster), and all attendees are encouraged to present a poster. More details and the submission process are included during registration.

Key Dates:

For full consideration, talk abstracts should be submitted by the end of the day Thursday, July 31.
Posters submissions accepted until general registration closes (either Sunday, August 31 or earlier, if capacity is reached and a substantial waitlist has formed).