Vice Provost for Research, Johns Hopkins University

Theophilus Halley Smoot Professor

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, School of Engineering

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Dr. Wirtz studies the biophysical properties of healthy and diseased cells, including interactions between adjacent cells and the role of cellular architecture on nuclear shape and gene expression. He has developed and applied particle tracking methods to probe the micromechanical properties of living cells in normal conditions and disease state. His lab conducts groundbreaking research in the areas of cell motility, tumorigenesis and cancer metastasis, extracellular vesicles, digital pathology, machine learning applications to biological images, and immunology.

Biophysics and Structural Biology | Cancer Biology | Cell Biology | Translational Research

Selected Publications:

Marar C, Starich B, Wirtz D. Extracellular vesicles in immunomodulation and tumor progression. Nature Immunology, 2021.

Phillip JM, Zamponi N, Phillip MP, Daya J, McGovern S, Williams W, Tschudi K, Jayatilaka H, Wu PH, Walston J, Wirtz D. Fractional re-distribution among cell motility states during ageing. Communications Biology, 2021.

Nair PR, Wirtz D. Enabling migration by moderation: YAP/TAZ are essential for persistent migration. Journal of Cell Biology, 2019.

Perestrelo T, Chen W, Correia M, Le C, Pereira S, Rodrigues AS, Sousa MI, Ramalho-Santos J, Wirtz D. Pluri-IQ: Quantification of Embryonic Stem Cell Pluripotency through an Image-Based Analysis Software. Stem Cell Reports, 2018.

Wu PH, Aroush DR, Asnacios A, Chen WC, Dokukin ME, Doss BL, Durand-Smet P, Ekpenyong A, Guck J, Guz NV, Janmey PA, Lee JSH, Moore NM, Ott A, Poh YC, Ros R, Sander M, Sokolov I, Staunton JR, Wang N, Whyte G, Wirtz D. A comparison of methods to assess cell mechanical properties. Nature Methods, 2018.

Learn More

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