Thomas Gregor

About

Thomas Gregor is a Professor of Physics at Princeton University and a member of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. His research focuses on providing quantitative descriptions of the complex biological systems to understand how these systems derive from general physical principles. Working at the interface between physics and biology, Gregor combines theory and experiment to explore the fundamental distinctions between inanimate and living systems, operating under the belief that the same physical laws govern both. His group pursues a physics-style approach that integrates state-of-the-art experimental techniques, often developing new measurement methods in living systems, with sophisticated data analysis to rigorously test simple models and theories. Gregor's work aims to uncover new areas of physics emerging from the study of life, particularly how precise patterns of multicellular organization arise from spatially complex and rapidly evolving molecular events, and how fluctuations and long-range DNA interactions impose physical limits on information flow and reliable cellular decision-making. Gregor's academic background includes a Master in Physics from Geneva University (1999), a Master in Chemistry from Princeton University (2001), and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Princeton University (2005). He was a JSPS Fellow at Tokyo University from 2006 to 2009 before joining Princeton as an Assistant Professor of Physics in 2009, becoming Associate Professor in…

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Cell biology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computational biology
• Computer Science
• Evolutionary biology
• Neuroscience
• Cognitive science
• Epistemology

Selected publications

• Transcriptional coupling of distant regulatory genes in living embryos

  Nature · 2022 · 192 citations

  DOI

• Spatial and temporal organization of the genome: Current state and future aims of the 4D nucleome project

  Molecular Cell · 2023-07-06 · 96 citations

  reviewOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The many bits of positional information

  Development · 2021 · 78 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  embryo. We argue that a true physical variable (position) is encoded in local concentrations of patterning molecules, that this mapping is stochastic, and that the processes by which positions and corresponding cell fates are determined based on these concentrations need to take such stochasticity into account. With this approach, we shift the focus from biological mechanisms, molecules, genes and pathways to quantitative systems-level questions: where does positional information reside, how it…

  DOI

• Precise and scalable self-organization in mammalian pseudo-embryos

  Nature Structural & Molecular Biology · 2024-03-15 · 53 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Optogenetic control of the Bicoid morphogen reveals fast and slow modes of gap gene regulation

  Cell Reports · 2022 · 47 citations

  Developmental patterning networks are regulated by multiple inputs and feedback connections that rapidly reshape gene expression, limiting the information that can be gained solely from slow genetic perturbations. Here we show that fast optogenetic stimuli, real-time transcriptional reporters, and a simplified genetic background can be combined to reveal the kinetics of gene expression downstream of a developmental transcription factor in vivo. We engineer light-controlled versions of the Bicoid…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Control of the 4D chromatin landscape underlying gene activity during development

  NIH · $3.2M · 2020–2025

• The Biophysical and Molecular Mechanisms of Reliability in Development

  NIH · $4.9M · 2011–2026

• Controlling collective behavior in eukaryotic cell populations

  NIH · $1.1M · 2012–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Benjamin Zoller

  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  84 shared

• Eric Wieschaus

  Princeton University

  74 shared

• William Bialek

  Princeton University

  72 shared

• Ralf Hand

  45 shared

• Mariela D. Petkova

  Harvard University

  38 shared

• Lev Barinov

  Princeton University

  22 shared

• Gašper Tkačik

  Institute of Science and Technology Austria

  21 shared

• Gentian Muhaxheri

  City University of New York

  20 shared

Labs

• Laboratory for the Physics of LifePI

  The Laboratory for the Physics of Life is a biophysics research laboratory of Thomas Gregor at the Physics Department of Princeton University. The main focus of the lab is at the interface of physics and biology, and it pursues quantitative approaches to systems and developmental biology.

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