Earth came into existence around 4.5 billion years ago, and life evolved around 3.5 billion years ago. When the first biological system arose, the principles of the physical world were already laid down. Biological systems evolved in the presence of the principles of the physical world. Over the course of evolution, biological systems have found clever mechanisms to integrate the principles of the physical world into biological functions. It is easy to imagine this integration on the scale of organisms—such as hollow bones in birds for better flight, streamlined bodies in fish for efficient swimming, joints for flexibility, or green color in plants to capture light energy. However, life evolved from microscopic cells to large organisms. The influence of the principles of the physical world begins with micron-scale cells to macro-scale tissues/organs/organisms.  So, how do we understand the integration of the physical world with biology as it scales from micro to macro?

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Our lab focuses on understanding this integration across different scales, from micro- to macro-architectures in biological systems. We aim to identify and explore fundamentally how biological architectures are built from the subcellular level to the tissue/organ level, determine their functional roles, and follow their evolutionary trajectory. We are starting our exploration with the Pseudostratified architecture found in epithelial tissues. Understanding these processes across various life forms is central to our vision. We aim to gain a foundational understanding of these architectures by examining conventional model organisms and less-studied species.

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