Assistant Professor, MAE

Contact

djctwo@princeton.edu
Hoyt Chemical Laboratory, 109 Hoyt
Cohen Lab

Research Area

Cell Biology, Development & Cancer

Research Focus

Controlling collective cell behaviors, bioelectricity, cadherin-biomaterials



Research
Selected Publications
Research in the Cohen lab focuses primarily on bioengineering with applications to biomaterials and tissue engineering. We take the elegant swarming and collective behaviors that allow tissues to heal injuries, grow, and form complex structures and connect them to engineering approaches that enable us to control those behaviors in new ways. One example of this is ‘outside-in’ control of tissues where we are building microfluidic and bioelectric devices to literally herd the migration of hundreds of thousands of cells in a manner analogous to sheep herding. This technology may enable us to better control tissue growth and to accelerate wound healing. On the flip side, we are building cell-mimetic materials and microstructures that can integrate directly into living tissues in order to control them from the 'inside-out’. Our work spans a variety of disciplines and we welcome people from all backgrounds to come join us!




Wolf AE, Heinrich MA, Breinyn IB, Zajdel TJ, Cohen DJ. Short-term bioelectric stimulation of collective cell migration in tissues reprograms long-term supracellular dynamics. PNAS Nexus. 2022 ;1(1):pgac002. PubMed
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Heinrich MA, Alert R, Wolf AE, Ko?mrlj A, Cohen DJ. Self-assembly of tessellated tissue sheets by expansion and collision. Nat Commun. 2022 ;13(1):4026. PubMed
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LaChance J, Suh K, Clausen J, Cohen DJ. Learning the rules of collective cell migration using deep attention networks. PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 ;18(4):e1009293. PubMed
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LaChance J, Schottdorf M, Zajdel TJ, Saunders JL, Dvali S, Marshall C, et al. PVP1-The People's Ventilator Project: A fully open, low-cost, pressure-controlled ventilator research platform compatible with adult and pediatric uses. PLoS One. 2022 ;17(5):e0266810. PubMed
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Zajdel TJ, Shim G, Cohen DJ. Come together: On-chip bioelectric wound closure. Biosens Bioelectron. 2021 ;192:113479. PubMed
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Hart KC, Sim JYong, Hopcroft MA, Cohen DJ, Tan J, W Nelson J, et al. An Easy-to-Fabricate Cell Stretcher Reveals Density-Dependent Mechanical Regulation of Collective Cell Movements in Epithelia. Cell Mol Bioeng. 2021 ;14(6):569-581. PubMed
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Hart KC, Sim JYong, Hopcroft MA, Cohen DJ, Tan J, W Nelson J, et al. Correction to: An Easy-to-Fabricate Cell Stretcher Reveals Density-Dependent Mechanical Regulation of Collective Cell Movements in Epithelia. Cell Mol Bioeng. 2021 ;14(6):661-662. PubMed
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Nirody JA, Duran LA, Johnston D, Cohen DJ. Tardigrades exhibit robust interlimb coordination across walking speeds and terrains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 ;118(35). PubMed
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Shim G, Devenport D, Cohen DJ. Overriding native cell coordination enhances external programming of collective cell migration. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 ;118(29). PubMed
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