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Professor Pietro Cicuta

Laurea (Milan) PhD

Pietro Cicuta is Professor of Biological Physics and head of the Biological and Soft Systems sector of the Cavendish Laboratory. With his research team he investigates a variety of questions arising from biology and the clinic, where a physics approach can be fruitful.  Here, a physics approach means being able to devise new experiments and instruments, then control the measurement process, obtain systematic robust data, and finally think about that data in terms of underlying processes and mechanisms. Biology already at the scale of single cells is a universe of emergent behaviour, and more and more we can describe this in the language of physics. In terms of areas of physics, Pietro is particularly interested in Statistical Physics and Soft Condensed Matter.

Research Interests

I am interested in the structure and mechanics of soft materials, and in various questions motivated by biology, in the spirit of ``biological physics''. There are strong synergies between these two themes. The research I carry out in my group is predominantly but not exclusively experimental. For example, we use (and sometimes develop) instrumentation: optical tweezers, microrheology, advanced confocal microscopy and image analysis methods. These are deployed to characterise dynamics both in colloidal (liquid interfaces; membranes; gels) and cellular systems (gene expression in bacteria; growth of unicellular organisms in microenvironments; pathogen invasion of cells, inclusing Malaria).

College Position

Professorial Fellow

University Position

Professor of Biological Physics in the Department of Physics

College Office/Post

Director of Studies in Natural Sciences Physical