Bitbol Lab – Laboratory of Computational Biology and Theoretical Biophysics

We are broadly interested in understanding biological phenomena in a quantitative way, through physical concepts and mathematical and computational tools. In particular, we investigate the relative impacts of optimization and historical contingency in biological evolution. While this question has a long history in biology, quantitative approaches can now bring crucial insights to it and shed light on data from novel experiments. Our research spans multiple scales, from biomolecules to microbial populations, with specific interests in making sense of protein sequence data and in modeling antibiotic resistance evolution. We perform analytical work, numerical simulations and data analysis, and we enjoy collaborating with experimentalists.