Welcome to Savas Tay's Group

Postdoctoral, PhD and MS positions

                                                                                                                            .

Our goal is to understand "how life works" from an engineers perspective, and to develop technologies that aid this effort. Systems Biology is a new paradigm that aims to generate and integrate data at various levels and to build predictive quantitative computer models of biological systems. Tay Group will focus on:

• Solving major problems in Biology, especially in cell signaling, using the systems approach and quantitative experimental and computational methods
  
• Developing high-throughput single-cell analysis technologies based on microfluidics and optics for use in Systems Biology
  
• Translating these technologies into biomedical applications

We are interested in the following scientific questions:

• How cells communicate with each other via signaling pathways (i.e. NF-kappaB  spatio-temporal dynamics at the single-cell level)
• How cells encode signals via transcription factor dynamics
  
• What is the role of noise in signaling and gene regulation
  
• Experimental and computational analysis of emergent properties of complex biological systems
• Interaction of the host and pathogens
  

To answer such questions, we will develop new technologies:

• Microfluidic systems for high-throughput single-cell analysis (i.e. transcription factor dynamics, gene expression, cell migration)
• Optofluidic lab-on-a-chip sensors for analysis of biomolecules and cells
• Methods for external control of cell signaling (optogenetics, switchable proteins)
• New imaging modalities based on dynamic holography in microfluidic chips
  

Following papers give an idea on the type of research we pursue:

1. Tay S, Hughey JJ, Lee TK, Lipniacki T, Quake SR, Covert MW. "Single-cell NF-kappaB dynamics reveal digital activation and analogue information processing" Nature 466, 267 (2010) (pdf)
   
2. Tay S, et al. "An updateable holographic three-dimensional display" Nature 451, 694 (2008) (pdf)
   
3. Tay S, Kropachev A, Araci IE, Norwood R, Peyghambarian N. "Plasmonic thermal IR emitters based on nano-amorphous carbon" Applied Physics Letters 94, 071113 (2009)
4. Tay S, et al. "Planar photonic crystals infiltrated with polymer/nanoparticle composites" Applied Physics Letters 91, 221109 (2007)
5. Tay S, et al. "High-performance photorefractive polymer operating at 1550nm with near video-rate response time" Applied Physics Letter 87, 171105 (2005)
6. Tay S, et al. "Photorefractive polymer operating at the optical communication wavelength of 1550nm" Applied Physics Letters 85, 4561 (2004)

We are located at ETH Zurich Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, in Basel, Switzerland.