Moumita (Mo) Das

Thanks to all the participants for the energy and ideas they brought to the workshop, and to the NITMB leadership (especially, Tuca Auffinger and Joe Hibdon) and staff (especially, Penelope Johnson). I should also say that the NITMB space itself is exceptional and the views are breathtaking.

Most of the workshop was devoted to testing and refining ideas through group work and cross-group exchange. By the final day, teams presented emerging collaborative directions linking open biological questions with new or reimagined mathematical frameworks.

Additionally, short tutorials in morphogenesis, ecology, category theory, network theory, and algebraic topology also helped anchor discussions across very different perspectives.

Over three days, participants with math and biology backgrounds across career stages came together. We opened with 90-second lightning talks, followed by structured pairwise conversations and open discussions that led to working groups focused on developing new ideas.

Expanding the Palette of Mathematics in Biology

This past week, @wallaceucsf.bsky.social and I co-organized "Expanding the Palette of Mathematics in Biology" workshop at the @nitmb.bsky.social -- an experiment in interdisciplinary Math + Bio engagement and ideation beyond traditional approaches.
www.nitmb.org/expanding-pa...

Thanks so much, Markus! I appreciate it a huge amount.

I’m deeply honored and humbled to have been elected to the APS Division of Biological Physics (DBIO) Chair Line. DBIO has been my chosen family and professional home for many years, and I’m grateful and excited for the opportunity to serve our wonderfully thoughtful, vibrant community in this role!

Looking forward to hosting the awesome @haicenbiophy.bsky.social at this Friday's BPPB seminars for an exciting talk!! If you'd like to attend but don't have the zoom details, DM me.

Dear colleagues, if you are at the Cell Bio 2025, come check out posters by Sam Silliman (board B347) and Ulises Diaz (board B359)-- presenting work with @wallaceucsf.bsky.social and me -- in the Physical Properties of the Cytoplasm session in Exhibit Hall DE today from 2-3.45 pm.

Emergent Morphologies, Slow Dynamics, and Phase Behavior in Dps:DNA assemblies The DNA-binding protein from starved cells (Dps) compacts bacterial DNA into stress-protective condensates, yet the physical mechanisms underlying this process and the material properties of the resul...

Our manuscript on Dps:DNA condensates is now live on bioRxiv! With @abbondanzieri.bsky.social @meyerroc.bsky.social

Check it out at: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Super excited for today's BPPB seminar... happening now!

It was such a pleasure hosting Anne Meyer from UR for today’s Physics Colloquium. Her talk was fantastic, and I learned so much. The Q&A that followed—including the many thoughtful questions from students —was great too. Anne and me chatting over ginger tea afterwards + the talk announcement

Dear biophysics friends — the APS DBIO elections are now open! If you are a member, check for an email from directvote.net with the ballot. Please take a moment to vote — our community thrives when we show up. Candidate statements and bios are on the ballot (and I’m on it for Vice Chair).

This weekend was peak fall at Letchworth State Park, and the weather couldn’t have been better on Sunday — perfect for our annual Lab (+ friends) hike.

Excited to be hosting the BPPB seminar tomorrow after a while (last semester I was teaching during seminar hour).
Looking forward to a stimulating talk by Gautam Reddy (Princeton University) on the physics of learning.
Hope to see some of you there

Are you a mathematician or biologist interested in exploring the potential of mathematical biology?

Join us for our upcoming workshop, Expanding the Palette of Mathematics in Biology!

Application 🔗 in reply ⬇️

Last night we celebrated my postdoc mentee Jonathan’s send-off! 🎉 An amazing colleague and friend to our lab, his research in the Lab spanned cartilage mechanics, cytoskeletal composites & rigidity transitions, with papers in Science Advances, PNAS Nexus, Soft Matter, Phys Rev Res. We will miss him!

Just back from the 2025 Soft Matter GRC = soft matter summer camp. Talks, discussions & power hour were 🔥! Huge congrats and thanks to Jenny Ross & Meredith Betterton for co-chairing and making it a big success. In 2 yrs I’ll co-chair w/ Eric Dufresne — can't wait!
Photo: with GRC and GRS chairs

Super excited about this new grant from the NSF–Simons NITMB with Wallace Marshall (UCSF)! Our project will use tools from abstract algebra and graph theory to model how mitochondrial networks form, reorganize, and function.
#MathBio #Mitochondria #AbstractAlgebra #NITMB #InterdisciplinaryResearch

Low key lab dinner last night to celebrate Keegan’s successful MS thesis defense and Youssof’s successuful PhD 2nd year presentation. Action shots from Youssof’s talk earlier in the day.

My Physics MS mentee Keegan Tonry defended their thesis today with a clear, thorough talk on spatiotemporal restructuring in active cytoskeletal composites. It’s been great to see them grow and thrive as a researcher and bring this work to fruition. Congrats, Keegan!

At the Hactive Matter 2025 Workshop (Hackathon) at UCSB, with my collaborators Rae Robertson-Anderson, Megan Valentine, Ryan McGorty and student/postdoc participants

Please join BPPB on Friday July 18 at 11 US Eastern time for talks by Lailai Zhu (Endowing Intelligence in Bionic Active Particles) and Sohan Kale (Mapping Cellular Tractions on Nanonets). For more information and to join our email list, please visit sites.google.com/view/bppb-se....

Just wrapped up 5 intense days at an NIH Innovation Lab on synthetic biology + cancer initiation. Hadn’t been in one in 4 years, forgot how stimulating they can be. Nothing like the thrill of bold, cross-disciplinary ideas with scientists you’ve just met—who may well become your new collaborators

I’ve recently stepped into the role of Director of our Physics PhD program. Colleagues who’ve served as PhD Program Directors or DGS — I’d love your thoughts on what worked, what didn’t, and what you wish you’d known starting out. Comment, email, or tell me next time we talk (in person or on Zoom).

An Informal Overview of US Science Funding How does public funding for science work in the United States? How much money is there? Who gets it, and how? How much does a graduate student cost? Even normally, science funding is a rich topic w…

I put together a rough presentation on how US science funding works, for my & neighboring research groups, mainly aimed at grad students. Lots of neat graphs! (Each could be a story of its own...) Quiz questions! I pasted it into a blog post: eighteenthelephant.com/2025/06/11/a...

Envious that colleagues at the TSRC workshop “Self-assembly in non-equilibrium systems” are hiking Bridal Veil Falls—but with my talk this afternoon, I stayed back to edit slides, + make a Broader Impacts highlight for NSF. I did hike Sunday, so just missing the “talking science while hiking” part!

End-of-semester Das Lab dinner tonight. I asked what we should toast to, and one of my mentees said, ‘To science.’ Couldn’t have picked a better one."

Had a great time speaking at @RITOsher about our work on cartilage shear mechanics and better models for insight into osteoarthritis. Packed room, lots of thoughtful questions, great conversations— thank you organizers and the NSF. Couldn't have done it #WithoutNSF.

www.rit.edu/osher/events...

Some very happy lab news from this past week— Sam has accepted an offer to join the Physics PhD program at Princeton this fall, and Luke will be heading to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for a summer REU in Physics. I’m super proud of and excited for them both! 🎉🎆