Research

The biomedical microdevices area leverages microscale structures and phenomena to create novel instrumentation for research in biology and medicine. Microscale phenomena give researchers a new set of tools for performing experiments that are either impossible or impractical with traditional technology. For example, researchers in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Mississippi use microdevices to perform high throughput screening of drug candidates using only picoliters per sample and create complex oxygen landscapes within cell cultures.

Faculty

Glenn Walker: Walker Lab

Molecular Biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research at the interface of biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. We seek to understand the mechanics of biology from the single molecule to complex system levels, such as how biomolecules are made and how different parts of a cell move and function. Using novel approaches to better understand life at the molecular level will be pivotal in discovering the mechanisms of disease and thus developing more targeted therapeutics. Researchers at the University of Mississippi investigate the biophysics of cytoskeletal hierarchy (systems that include molecular motors, proteins, microtubules, actin, etc.) and the implications of their synergy in vital life processes such as cell division and motility using a biophysical technique called optical tweezers.