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Wednesday, November 19, 2025
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Presenter: Dr. Daniel Cohen, Associate Professor, The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University
Our lab tries to 'herd cells' to control healing and tissue growth, and we use light both as a readout and an input to achieve this. As a readout, we use imaging to span the scale, from the collective dynamics of 'giant' engineered tissues (400 sq. mm) with tiled macroscopy, to the subcellular localization of supercharged fluorescent proteins engineered to detect extracellular bioelectric currents. As an input, we use light for: large-area optogenetic control of cell migration; spatial photodamage to induce cellular swarming; and 2-photon print of subcellular nanostructures for improved cell-biomaterial adhesion. While this talk will introduce some of these stories, it will also serve as a 'call for help' highlighting some of the major optical challenges and 'wishlists' in this work where we hope an interdisciplinary perspective can help!
Daniel J. Cohen is a Joint Associate Professor of Bioengineering (ODBI) and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at Princeton University. He started as a mechanical engineer at Princeton (B.S.) and transitioned to Bioengineering at UC Berkeley/UCSF (Ph.D.). He was an HHMI-sponsored Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF) post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University where he tried to learn about actual cell biology. He now combines these skills at Princeton where he is the Director of Graduate Studies for the Bioengineering Ph.D. program. He has received the CMBE Rising Star award from BMES, an NSF CAREER award, and an NIH Outstanding Early Career Investigator MIRA. In his 'spare' time, he is a professional storyteller. So far, he has co-founded and produced for Odd Salon:New York; founded the LabTales Science Storytelling and Communication program; and given nearly 100 science storytelling performances in bars, nightclubs, theaters and lecture halls across 8 countries.