Associated Faculty, Physics and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics
Contact
shaevitz@princeton.edu609-258-8177
Icahn Laboratory, 244
Shaevitz lab
Research Area
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Structural BiologyResearch Focus
Cellular and molecular biophysics; shape, mechanics and motilityResearch
Selected Publications
The cells that make up all living organisms come in a dizzying array of sizes and shapes, each with unique structural and mechanical properties. When many cells move they contort their bodies to glide along surfaces or swim through fluid. We are interested in the different physical strategies that mother nature has found to create the cellular and sub-cellular structures that perform these amazing feats.
One of the species we study, Spiroplasma melliferum, is a helix barely more than 100 nm across and a few microns long. How does this cell achieve its beautiful shape? When these cells swim they change the helicity of their entire bodies to produce movement. How does this work? How can a cell organize its contents in such a tightly packed space?
It was recently discovered that many, if not all, bacteria use an internal cytoskelton to define their shape, to guide intracellular organization and to produce movement. Our lab studies physical aspects of the prokaryotic cytoskeleton. What are the structural properties of the individual cytoskeletal filaments and how do they contribute to overall cell mechanics? Is mechanical stress induced by the cytoskeleton used to determine cell shape? Are these filaments used as tracks by molecular motors as they are in eukaryotes by kinesin and myosin? These are just some of the basic questions that our lab is interested in.
For this research, we are developing new instrumentation that combines mechanical perturbation of cells and molecules with visualization of key protein and macromolecular structures. Our toolbox includes unique combinations of optical microscopy, fluorescence and deconvolution microscopy, optical trapping, atomic force microscopy, as well as biophysical modeling and simulation.
Pereira TD, Tabris N, Matsliah A, Turner DM, Li J, Ravindranath S, et al. Publisher Correction: SLEAP: A deep learning system for multi-animal pose tracking. Nat Methods. 2022 ;19(5):628. PubMed
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Gouveia B, Kim Y, Shaevitz JW, Petry S, Stone HA, Brangwynne CP. Capillary forces generated by biomolecular condensates. Nature. 2022 ;609(7926):255-264. PubMed
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Z Wang Y, McKenzie-Smith GC, Liu W, Cho HJin, Pereira T, Dhanerawala Z, et al. Isolation disrupts social interactions and destabilizes brain development in bumblebees. Curr Biol. 2022 ;32(12):2754-2764.e5. PubMed
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Koch MD, Black ME, Han E, Shaevitz JW, Gitai Z. distinguishes surfaces by stiffness using retraction of type IV pili. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 ;119(20):e2119434119. PubMed
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Pereira TD, Tabris N, Matsliah A, Turner DM, Li J, Ravindranath S, et al. SLEAP: A deep learning system for multi-animal pose tracking. Nat Methods. 2022 ;19(4):486-495. PubMed
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Klibaite U, Kislin M, Verpeut JL, Bergeler S, Sun X, Shaevitz JW, et al. Deep phenotyping reveals movement phenotypes in mouse neurodevelopmental models. Mol Autism. 2022 ;13(1):12. PubMed
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Overman KE, Choi DM, Leung K, Shaevitz JW, Berman GJ. Measuring the repertoire of age-related behavioral changes in Drosophila melanogaster. PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 ;18(2):e1009867. PubMed
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Koch MD, Shaevitz JW. Art Ashkin and the Origins of Optical Trapping and Particle Manipulation. Methods Mol Biol. 2022 ;2478:11-22. PubMed
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Setru SU, Gouveia B, Alfaro-Aco R, Shaevitz JW, Stone HA, Petry S. A hydrodynamic instability drives protein droplet formation on microtubules to nucleate branches. Nat Phys. 2021 ;17(4):493-498. PubMed
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Hallinen KM, Dempsey R, Scholz M, Yu X, Linder A, Randi F, et al. Decoding locomotion from population neural activity in moving . Elife. 2021 ;10. PubMed
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Han E, Zhu L, Shaevitz JW, Stone HA. Low-Reynolds-number, biflagellated Quincke swimmers with multiple forms of motion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 ;118(29). PubMed
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Ellison CK, Dalia TN, Klancher CA, Shaevitz JW, Gitai Z, Dalia AB. Acinetobacter baylyi regulates type IV pilus synthesis by employing two extension motors and a motor protein inhibitor. Nat Commun. 2021 ;12(1):3744. PubMed
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Koch MD, Fei C, Wingreen NS, Shaevitz JW, Gitai Z. Competitive binding of independent extension and retraction motors explains the quantitative dynamics of type IV pili. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 ;118(8). PubMed
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Pereira TD, Shaevitz JW, Murthy M. Quantifying behavior to understand the brain. Nat Neurosci. 2020 ;23(12):1537-1549. PubMed
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Klibaite U, Shaevitz JW. Paired fruit flies synchronize behavior: Uncovering social interactions in Drosophila melanogaster. PLoS Comput Biol. 2020 ;16(10):e1008230. PubMed
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Thawani A, Rale MJ, Coudray N, Bhabha G, Stone HA, Shaevitz JW, et al. The transition state and regulation of γ-TuRC-mediated microtubule nucleation revealed by single molecule microscopy. Elife. 2020 ;9. PubMed
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Taylor JA, Bratton BP, Sichel SR, Blair KM, Jacobs HM, DeMeester KE, et al. Distinct cytoskeletal proteins define zones of enhanced cell wall synthesis in . Elife. 2020 ;9. PubMed
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M Amin J, Petry S, Yang H, Shaevitz JW. Uniform intensity in multifocal microscopy using a spatial light modulator. PLoS One. 2020 ;15(3):e0230217. PubMed
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Liu G, Patch A, Bahar F, Yllanes D, Welch RD, M Marchetti C, et al. Self-Driven Phase Transitions Drive Myxococcus xanthus Fruiting Body Formation. Phys Rev Lett. 2019 ;122(24):248102. PubMed
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Simsek ANihat, Braeutigam A, Koch MD, Shaevitz JW, Huang Y, Gompper G, et al. Substrate-rigidity dependent migration of an idealized twitching bacterium. Soft Matter. 2019 ;15(30):6224-6236. PubMed
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Thawani A, Stone HA, Shaevitz JW, Petry S. Spatiotemporal organization of branched microtubule networks. Elife. 2019 ;8. PubMed
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Pereira TD, Aldarondo DE, Willmore L, Kislin M, Wang SS-H, Murthy M, et al. Fast animal pose estimation using deep neural networks. Nat Methods. 2019 ;16(1):117-125. PubMed
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Shaevitz JW. Microbiology: Peeling Back the Layers of Bacterial Envelope Mechanics. Curr Biol. 2018 ;28(20):R1210-R1211. PubMed
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Guzzo M, Murray SM, Martineau E, Lhospice S, Baronian G, My L, et al. A gated relaxation oscillator mediated by FrzX controls morphogenetic movements in Myxococcus xanthus. Nat Microbiol. 2018 ;3(8):948-959. PubMed
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Bratton BP, Shaevitz JW, Gitai Z, Morgenstein RM. MreB polymers and curvature localization are enhanced by RodZ and predict E. coli's cylindrical uniformity. Nat Commun. 2018 ;9(1):2797. PubMed
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Cande J, Namiki S, Qiu J, Korff W, Card GM, Shaevitz JW, et al. Optogenetic dissection of descending behavioral control in . Elife. 2018 ;7. PubMed
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Liu M, Sharma AK, Shaevitz JW, Leifer AM. Temporal processing and context dependency in response to mechanosensation. Elife. 2018 ;7. PubMed
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Nguyen JP, Linder AN, Plummer GS, Shaevitz JW, Leifer AM. Automatically tracking neurons in a moving and deforming brain. PLoS Comput Biol. 2017 ;13(5):e1005517. PubMed
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Klibaite U, Berman GJ, Cande J, Stern DL, Shaevitz JW. An unsupervised method for quantifying the behavior of paired animals. Phys Biol. 2017 ;14(1):015006. PubMed
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Liu GS, Bratton BP, Gitai Z, Shaevitz JW. The effect of antibiotics on protein diffusion in the Escherichia coli cytoplasmic membrane. PLoS One. 2017 ;12(10):e0185810. PubMed
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Koch MD, Shaevitz JW. Introduction to Optical Tweezers. Methods Mol Biol. 2017 ;1486:3-24. PubMed
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Ouzounov N, Nguyen JP, Bratton BP, Jacobowitz D, Gitai Z, Shaevitz JW. MreB Orientation Correlates with Cell Diameter in Escherichia coli. Biophys J. 2016 ;111(5):1035-43. PubMed
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Wang Q, J Taliaferro M, Klibaite U, Hilgers V, Shaevitz JW, Rio DC. The PSI-U1 snRNP interaction regulates male mating behavior in Drosophila. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 ;113(19):5269-74. PubMed
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Casadevall A, Bertuzzi S, Buchmeier MJ, Davis RJ, Drake H, Fang FC, et al. ASM Journals Eliminate Impact Factor Information from Journal Websites. mSystems. 2016 ;1(4). PubMed
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Nguyen JP, Shipley FB, Linder AN, Plummer GS, Liu M, Setru SU, et al. Whole-brain calcium imaging with cellular resolution in freely behaving Caenorhabditis elegans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 ;113(8):E1074-81. PubMed
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Berman GJ, Bialek W, Shaevitz JW. Predictability and hierarchy in Drosophila behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 ;113(42):11943-11948. PubMed
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Nguyen JP, Bratton BP, Shaevitz JW. Biophysical Measurements of Bacterial Cell Shape. Methods Mol Biol. 2016 ;1440:227-45. PubMed
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Morgenstein RM, Bratton BP, Nguyen JP, Ouzounov N, Shaevitz JW, Gitai Z. RodZ links MreB to cell wall synthesis to mediate MreB rotation and robust morphogenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 ;112(40):12510-5. PubMed
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Thutupalli S, Sun M, Bunyak F, Palaniappan K, Shaevitz JW. Directional reversals enable Myxococcus xanthus cells to produce collective one-dimensional streams during fruiting-body formation. J R Soc Interface. 2015 ;12(109):20150049. PubMed
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Bratton BP, Shaevitz JW. Simple Experimental Methods for Determining the Apparent Focal Shift in a Microscope System. PLoS One. 2015 ;10(8):e0134616. PubMed
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Pilizota T, Shaevitz JW. Origins of Escherichia coli growth rate and cell shape changes at high external osmolality. Biophys J. 2014 ;107(8):1962-1969. PubMed
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