News
2024
4.4
Delaney Wilde wins a prestigious NSF GRFP Fellowship. Congratulations Delaney!!
1.20
Dennis' work describing a new protein for cytoplasmic clustering is published in JMB. The protein, called BcLOVclust, was generated by discovering that the clustering and membrane binding of BcLOV4 are separately encoded in the BcLOV4 sequence. BcLOVclust is one of a small number of proteins known to cluster in response to blue light
1.03
Rachel Eichman and Grace Liu officially join the lab as PhD students! Welcome Rachel and Grace! We look forward to all the discoveries you will make.
2023
11.24
Our work on the optoPlateReader is now published at Communications Biology. The optoPlateReader allows you to simultaneously stimulate and perform spectroscopy on samples in 96-well plates, and link measurements to stimulation for all-optical computer-in-the-loop feedback. Driven by Will and Saachi, this work was a large collaboration over several years, beginning with our first iGEM team at the start of the pandemic, as well as with the labs of Brian Chow and Jose Avalos. Read more about our iGEM team here.
11.16
Our collaborative work with the Hughes lab on enhanced single-cell Western blotting is now published in Analytical Chemistry. The work characterizes an additional diffusive transfer step that allows increases signal to noise of the assay by lowering transport barriers. Led by Masha in the Hughes lab with an assist from Will from our lab.
7.11
Carol and Delaney both pass their qualifying exams and become the lab's latest PhD candidates. Congratulations Carol and Delaney!!
6.29
Our second paper, "Optogenetic clustering and membrane translocation of the BcLOV4 photoreceptor", is published in PNAS. Outstanding work co-led by Ayush and Will on the discovery that BcLOV4 clusters upon blue light stimulation in mammalian cells, and that this can be used for new optogenetic probes.
1.06
The lab is thrilled to welcome its two newest PhD students, Carol Gao and Delaney Wilde, who joined us for rotations last semester. Welcome Delaney and Carol!
1.03
The lab is awarded a Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society to understand how RTK fusion aggregates alter signal perception in cancer cells. Grateful for the support from the ACS to pursue this fascinating work at the intersection of seemingly all major themes in our lab: cancer cell signaling, protein clustering, drug responses, and optogenetics.
2022
11.01
Congratulations to the 2022 UPenn iGEM team, who took home Gold Medal distinction at the international iGEM Jamboree in Paris. Check out Photocrete, the team's idea for how to develop an optogenetic secretion toolbox.
7.31
We say goodbye to superstar lab tech Saachi Datta, who started with us through iGEM and stayed on to refine, characterize, and publish the optoPlateReader. Now off to continue her studies at Stanford Medical School -- best of luck Saachi!
7.14
Dennis Huang delivers a stellar qualifying exam and becomes our most recent PhD candidate. Congrats Dennis!
2.09
A huge thank you to the National Science Foundation for funding our CAREER proposal! We will use this award to engineer next-gen thermal biosensors for remote control of mammalian cells. We’ll also develop an educational module on how synthetic biology can be used to make better cell therapies, with the goal of inspiring local high school students towards STEM and biotechnology.
1.07
The lab has a great week at the 2022 BMES CMBE conference in Indian Wells, CA. Lukasz is awarded a “Rising Star” award, and 3rd yr student David Gonzalez-Martinez wins a “best poster” prize (congrats David!). And everyone enjoyed a few days of sun in the SoCal desert, featuring — among other things — real live tumbleweeds!
2021
12.22
The lab publishes its first research article, “Temperature-responsive optogenetic probes of cell signaling”, in Nature Chemical Biology. We discovered that a protein that was known to respond to blue light can also sense and respond to temperature, and that both light and temperature can be used to control signaling in mammalian, fly and zebrafish cells.. Truly collaborative work led by Will Benman, in partnership with the labs of Brian Chow, Bomyi Lim, and Arndt Siekmann.
11.14
The UPenn undergraduate iGEM team, hosted by our lab and led by our PhD students Will and David and Chow lab student Gabrielle Ho, had a tremendous performance at the international Jamboree competition. In total, the team took home:
Top 10 overall of >200 ugrad teams (only US team in this group)
#1 best presentation of all >200 ugrad teams
#1 best hardware of all >200 ugrad teams
#1 Foundational Advance of all 25 ugrad teams in this track.
Top 10 website of all >200 ugrad teams.
And a gold medal distinction to top it off. The team’s project was on developing the “optoReader”, a high-throughput device to optically stimulate and measure biological samples. Incredible work by this team of Penn undergraduates: Saachi Datta, Gloria Lee, Juliette Hooper, Grace Qian, Lana Salloum, Gabrielle Leavitt,
9.01
Dennis Huang joins as our lab’s newest PhD student. Welcome Dennis! We look forward to the discoveries you will make.
8.16
The lab welcomed 3 talented undergraduates this summer: Hikaru Kotake, Diarmid Rae, and Pavan Iyengar. All did a suberb job and made important advances in their projects, including in computational modeling, engineering new optogenetic signaling probes, and building the next generation of hardware for remote control of cells. We hope to share these advances with everyone soon!
2.16
Will presents the first conference talk from a Bugaj Lab trainee at the Optogenetics Australia 2021 Workshop. And he won a “Best Oral Presentation” award while he was at it. Congrats Will!
2020
11.02
Our paper “β-catenin signaling dynamics regulate cell fate in differentiating neural stem cells” was published today in PNAS. We found that the timing of β-catenin can specify either neurogenesis (sustained β-catenin) or apoptosis (transient) in adult rat neural stem cells, with implications for a new mechanism for robustness in stem cell differentiation. Yet another example of how cell decisions can be encoded in cell signal dynamics. Special thanks to first author Alyssa Rosenbloom, as well as to my advisor, mentor, and collaborator David Schaffer.
10.16
Tom and Lee’s review “Reverse and Forward Engineering Multicellular Structures with Optogenetics” is now published in Current Opinions in Biomedical Engineering. We present a concise overview of recent work in the field as well as our take on exciting future possibilities. This is also officially our first peer-reviewed publication from the lab!
6.11
Congratulations to David for passing his qualifying exam and officially becoming a PhD candidate.
3.31
Will was awarded a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations Will! A well-deserved honor.
1.02
We welcome Lee Roth as our first postdoc! Lee earned her PhD with Yosef Yarden at the Weizmann Institute, and then did a short postdoc with Ari Elson, also at the Weizmann. Welcome Lee! We promise that Philadelphia will get warmer soon.
2019
9.01
Many congrats to Shannon Laub who passed her qualifying exam and is now a PhD candidate
6.26
A huge congratulations to Will Benman and Tom Mumford, who both passed their qualifying exams and became the first PhD candidates in lab history.
5.15
Our protocol describing how to build and use the optoPlate-96 is published today in Nature Protocols. The optoPlates are devices that allow high-throughput, multiplexed optogenetics experiments in microwell plates. Check out our optoPlates section and build your own!
3.13
We are excited to receive our first NIH funding for an exciting collaboration with friend and colleague, Alex Hughes (check out the Hughes lab here). Together with our fearless grad students, our aim is to develop a new platform for highly multiplexed single-cell proteomics.
1.07
A warm welcome to Guillaume Harmange as our newest rotation student. And another welcome to former rotation student Will Benman, who officially joins the lab for his PhD.
2018
11.06
We are honored to receive our first competitive funding awards, one from the W.W. Smith Charitable Foundation, and one from the UPenn ACC-SEAS Discovery Science program (collaboration with Donita Brady).
9.04
David Gonzalez-Martinez joins the lab as a research technician. Welcome David!
8.30
Lukasz's postdoctoral work is published in Science, with an accompanying perspective and news release. The work shows that cancer mutations may not simply be ON-switches for growth signaling, but can change how cells perceive their environment. An excellent collaborative effort and a great springboard for our new lab!
8.27
Shannon Laub and Thomas Mumford join the lab as our intrepid first graduate students. Welcome Shannon and Tom!
1.29
The Bugaj Lab begins in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Come say hello!
We have several open positions and are actively recruiting. Please see details here.