Associate Professor

Email: M.Asally@warwick.ac.uk

Phone: 024 765 72976

Office: MB17

Twitter: @munelectroLink opens in a new window

https://asallylab.com

Research Clusters

Quantitative, Systems & Engineering Biology

Microbiology & Infectious disease

Warwick Centres and GRPs

Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre

Warwick Antimicrobial Interdisciplinary Centre

Vacancies and Opportunities

For PhD and postdoctoral opportunities, and interest in potential collaborations, please contact me at the above email address.

Research Interests

We are interested in biophysical (electrical and mechanical) interactions and signalling and their applications for engineering biology. We study electrophysiology, electrical signalling in bacteria, biofilms, and swarming using Bacillus subtilis, a Gram-positive bacterium, as the primary model system.

We use various experimental and computational techniques including molecular cloning, fluorescence microscopy, time-lapse imaging, quantitative image analysis, and phenomenological modelling. Our research has been published in prestigious scientific journals such as Nature, PNAS and eLife.

We have a track record of many successful collaborations with active-matter physics, non-linear physics, neuroscience, material science, electrochemistry, organic chemistry and robotic engineering.

Keywords: Biophysics, Bioelectricity, Synthetic Biology, Quantitative Biology

Research: Technical Summary

Living systems are commonly perceived to be more unpredictable, softer, and fuzzier than electronics. But how do such behaviours manifest in biological systems? This is the fundamental question I am interested to investigate. We develop new tools for rapid live cell detection and advance our understanding of bacterial signalling by combining molecular-biological, biophysical, and computational approaches.

MAIN RESEARCH TOPICS
Live cell detection: We have developed a novel technology that distinguishes between growing and non-growing cells. This technology can be used for detecting live cells for various purposes -e.g. contamination detection, diagnosis of pathogens, and microbial research. To commercialise this technology, we formed a spinout company, Cytecom Ltd.

Bioelectricity and Bio-Electrical Engineering (BEE): Researchers, including us, are revising the view that bioelectrical signalling (such as neural signalling) is exclusive to animals. It has been revealed that even bacteria can use membrane potential dynamics for signalling. We study bacterial electrical signalling. We also develop tools for modulating bacterial membrane potential using electricity and light.

Spores: Bacterial spores are an intriguing form of life that is both living and non-living. They can survive in extreme conditions, such as heat, cold, drought, UV, and even extra-terrestrial space. Understanding spores is important not only for understanding the difference between living and non-living but also for future terraformation. We are particularly interested in the bioelectrical dynamics during the formation of spores and the germination of spores into live-growing cells.

Emergent properties: Emergent behaviour is one of the characteristic features of living systems. Biological systems frequently exhibit behaviours that cannot be fully explained by reductionism. For example, biofilms can withstand lethal antibiotic doses for individual cells. We are interested in understanding and exploiting the collective dynamics of bacterial biofilms and swarms.

Publications

For a full list of publications, see WRAP

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