Ned Wingreen Position Howard A. Prior Professor in the Life Sciences. Professor of Molecular Biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. Role Director, Graduate Program in Quantitative and Computational Biology. Associate Director, Princeton Center for Theoretical Science. Play Featured Videos Website Wingreen Lab CV Wingreen CV 2025 Office Phone 609-258-8476 Email [email protected] Assistant Alison Phillips Office Icahn Laboratory, 240 Play Featured Videos Bio/Description FocusBiological modeling; molecular biophysics; intracellular networks; intracellular phase separation; systems immunologyResearchMicrobial CommunitiesBiofilms, surface-attached communities of bacteria encased in an extracellular matrix, are a major mode of bacterial life. We collaborate with the Bassler and Stone labs at Princeton to study many aspects of biofilms, from their formation and maturation to their eventual disassembly, mostly using Vibrio cholerae as a model organism. The detailed experimental observations on biofilms call for biophysical modeling, and to this end we have developed both agent-based and a continuum models that capture the distinct stages of the biofilm lifecycle. We also collaborate with the Shaevitz lab in studies of activity-driven pattern formation by the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus, which aggregates and forms fruiting bodies in response to starvation, and with the Gitai lab on how bacterial community morphology influences collective behavior. Finally, we are broadly interested in microbial diversity – why are there so many different species in essentially ever microbiota? We have also collaborated with the Donia lab to better understand the ecology of microbes in nature.Bacteria-Phage InteractionsBacteria and the viruses that infect them (phages) have been engaged in an arms race spanning eons. Recent advances in metagenomic sequencing that allow a deep look into the world of bacteria and phage have brought this topic once again to the forefront of microbiology. Moreover, advances in modeling microbial interactions and community dynamics make this topic an important frontier in biological physics and physical/mathematical biology. We collaborate with the Gitai lab on a broad range of topics, such as the molecular mechanisms of phage infection including the many recently discovered attack, defense, and counter-defense strategies, the coevolution of bacteria and phage, the ecological consequences of phage predation, and the application of phage therapy in the treatment of bacterial infections. We also collaborate with the Bassler lab on the fascinating topic of how phage participate in bacterial quorum-sensing communications.Intracellular Phase SeparationBiologists have recently come to appreciate that eukaryotic cells are home to a multiplicity of non-membrane bound compartments, many of which form and dissolve as needed for the cell to function. The data are accumulating that these dynamical biomolecular condensates enable many central cellular functions – from ribosome assembly, to DNA repair, to cell-fate determination – and understanding them will be the key to unlocking some of the most recalcitrant problems in cell biology. It seems clear that these compartments represent a type of separated phase, but there are many open questions concerning their formation, how specific biological components are included or excluded, and how these structures influence physiological and biochemical processes. In these studies, we collaborate with the Brangwynne, Jonikas, and Joseph labs at Princeton.Systems ImmunologyThe immune system functions across diverse scales, from the recognition of molecules to the evolution of populations. At all these levels, recent experimental innovations and theoretical approaches have created unprecedented opportunities for novel quantitative insights. The group has an expanding interest in multiple aspects of the immune system, with a particular focus on the fascinating process by which B cells undergo Darwinian evolution in the body to better combat pathogens. We collaborate with the Lynch lab at Princeton, the Nussenzweig lab at Rockefeller University, and the Merkenschlager lab at Harvard.BiographyNed Wingreen is the Howard A. Prior Professor of the Life Sciences at Princeton University. He is a member of the Department of Molecular Biology and Associate Director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, where he is Director of Graduate Studies of the QCB Graduate Program. He is also Associate Director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, and associated faculty in the Department of Physics. Ned received his Ph.D. in theoretical condensed matter physics from Cornell University in 1989. He did his postdoc in mesoscopic physics at MIT before moving, in 1991, to the NEC Research Institute in Princeton. At NEC, he continued to work in mesoscopic physics, but also started research in biophysics which grew into a general interest in problems at the interface of physics and biology. Ned joined Princeton University in 2004. Ned's current research focuses on modeling of bacteria, bacterial communities, phages, and other microorganisms, as well as studies of microbial intracellular phase separation, and topics in immunology. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.Honors & Awards2019President's Award for Distinguished Teaching, Princeton University2012Elected Fellow of the AAAS, American Association for the Advancement of Science2001Elected Fellow of the APS, American Physical Society Education B.S., Physics, California Institute of TechnologyM.S., Ph.D., Physics, Cornell University Selected Publications 1.Johnson G, Fei C, Wingreen N, Bassler B. Cell-scale gene-expression measurements in biofilms reveal spatiotemporal patterns underlying development. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology. 2025;. PMCID: PMC11275835 1.Bridges A, Prentice J, Wingreen N, Bassler B. Signal Transduction Network Principles Underlying Bacterial Collective Behaviors. Annu Rev Microbiol. 2022;76:235–257. PMCID: PMC9463083 1.Ellison C, Fei C, Dalia T, Wingreen N, Dalia A, Shaevitz J, Gitai Z. Subcellular localization of type IV pili regulates bacterial multicellular development. Nat Commun. 2022;13(1):6334. PMCID: PMC9596432 1.Martínez-Calvo A, Bhattacharjee T, Bay K, Luu H, Hancock A, Wingreen N, Datta S. Morphological instability and roughening of growing 3D bacterial colonies. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022;119(43):e2208019119. PMCID: PMC9618147 1.Landajuela A, Braun M, Martínez-Calvo A, Rodrigues C, Perez C, Doan T, Rudner D, Wingreen N, Karatekin E. Membrane fission during bacterial spore development requires cellular inflation driven by DNA translocation. Curr Biol. 2022;32(19):4186–4200.e8. PMCID: PMC9730832 1.Zhang D, Li S, King C, Wingreen N, Gitai Z, Li Z. Global and gene-specific translational regulation in Escherichia coli across different conditions. PLoS Comput Biol. 2022;18(10):e1010641. PMCID: PMC9624429 1.Fei C, Wilson A, Mangan N, Wingreen N, Jonikas M. Modelling the pyrenoid-based CO-concentrating mechanism provides insights into its operating principles and a roadmap for its engineering into crops. Nat Plants. 2022;8(5):583–595. PMCID: PMC9122830 1.Bridges A, Prentice J, Fei C, Wingreen N, Bassler B. Quantitative input-output dynamics of a c-di-GMP signal transduction cascade in Vibrio cholerae. PLoS Biol. 2022;20(3):e3001585. PMCID: PMC8967002 1.Ronceray P, Zhang Y, Liu X, Wingreen N. Stoichiometry Controls the Dynamics of Liquid Condensates of Associative Proteins. Phys Rev Lett. 2022;128(3):038102. PMID: 35119898 1.McEnany J, Meir Y, Wingreen N. piRNAs of Caenorhabditis elegans broadly silence nonself sequences through functionally random targeting. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022;50(3):1416–1429. PMCID: PMC8860604 View all publications 1.Pyo A, Zhang Y, Wingreen N. Surface tension and super-stoichiometric surface enrichment in two-component biomolecular condensates. iScience. 2022;25(2):103852. PMCID: PMC8851291 1.Lopez J, Wingreen N. Noisy metabolism can promote microbial cross-feeding. Elife. 2022;11. PMCID: PMC8983042 1.Pareek V, Sha Z, He J, Wingreen N, Benkovic S. Metabolic channeling: predictions, deductions, and evidence. Mol Cell. 2021;81(18):3775–3785. PMCID: PMC8485759 1.Miangolarra M, Li S, Joanny J-F, Wingreen N, Castellana M. Steric interactions and out-of-equilibrium processes control the internal organization of bacteria. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021;118(43). PMCID: PMC8639350 1.Erez A, Lopez J, Meir Y, Wingreen N. Enzyme regulation and mutation in a model serial-dilution ecosystem. Phys Rev E. 2021;104(4-1):044412. PMID: 34781576 1.Lopez J, Donia M, Wingreen N. Modeling the ecology of parasitic plasmids. ISME J. 2021;15(10):2843–2852. PMCID: PMC8443676 1.Narla A, Borenstein D, Wingreen N. A biophysical limit for quorum sensing in biofilms. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021;118(21). PMCID: PMC8166027 1.Qin B, Fei C, Wang B, Stone H, Wingreen N, Bassler B. Hierarchical transitions and fractal wrinkling drive bacterial pellicle morphogenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021;118(20). PMCID: PMC8157956 1.Zhang Y, Xu B, Weiner B, Meir Y, Wingreen N. Decoding the physical principles of two-component biomolecular phase separation. Elife. 2021;10. PMCID: PMC7952089 1.Wong G, Antani J, Lele P, Chen J, Nan B, Kühn M, Persat A, Bru J-L, Høyland-Kroghsbo N, Siryaporn A, Conrad J, Carrara F, Yawata Y, Stocker R, Brun Y, Whitfield G, Lee C, de Anda J, Schmidt W, Golestanian R, O’Toole G, Floyd K, Yildiz F, Yang S, Jin F, Toyofuku M, Eberl L, Nomura N, Zacharoff L, El-Naggar M, Yalcin S, Malvankar N, Rojas-Andrade M, Hochbaum A, Yan J, Stone H, Wingreen N, Bassler B, Wu Y, Xu H, Drescher K, Dunkel J. Roadmap on emerging concepts in the physical biology of bacterial biofilms: from surface sensing to community formation. Phys Biol. 2021;18(5). PMCID: PMC8506656 1.Saad-Roy C, Grenfell B, Levin S, van den Driessche P, Wingreen N. Evolution of an asymptomatic first stage of infection in a heterogeneous population. J R Soc Interface. 2021;18(179):20210175. PMCID: PMC8205539 1.Landajuela A, Braun M, Rodrigues C, Martínez-Calvo A, Doan T, Horenkamp F, Andronicos A, Shteyn V, Williams N, Lin C, Wingreen N, Rudner D, Karatekin E. FisB relies on homo-oligomerization and lipid binding to catalyze membrane fission in bacteria. PLoS Biol. 2021;19(6):e3001314. PMCID: PMC8274934 1.Saad-Roy C, Grenfell B, Levin S, Pellis L, Stage H, van den Driessche P, Wingreen N. Superinfection and the evolution of an initial asymptomatic stage. R Soc Open Sci. 2021;8(1):202212. PMCID: PMC7890506 1.Koch M, Fei C, Wingreen N, Shaevitz J, 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). PMCID: PMC7923367 1.Jemielita M, Mashruwala A, Valastyan J, Wingreen N, Bassler B. Secreted Proteases Control the Timing of Aggregative Community Formation in Vibrio cholerae. mBio. 2021;12(6):e0151821. PMCID: PMC8609355 1.Weiner B, Pyo A, Meir Y, Wingreen N. Motif-pattern dependence of biomolecular phase separation driven by specific interactions. PLoS Comput Biol. 2021;17(12):e1009748. PMCID: PMC8751999 1.Lopez J, Donia M, Wingreen N. Publisher Correction: Modeling the ecology of parasitic plasmids. ISME J. 2021;15(12):3722. PMCID: PMC8630101 1.Erez A, Lopez J, Weiner B, Meir Y, Wingreen N. Nutrient levels and trade-offs control diversity in a serial dilution ecosystem. Elife. 2020;9. PMCID: PMC7486120 1.Saad-Roy C, Wingreen N, Levin S, Grenfell B. Dynamics in a simple evolutionary-epidemiological model for the evolution of an initial asymptomatic infection stage. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020;117(21):11541–11550. PMCID: PMC7261016 1.Tareen A, Wingreen N, Mukhopadhyay R. Asymmetry between Activators and Deactivators in Functional Protein Networks. Sci Rep. 2020;10(1):10131. PMCID: PMC7311538 1.Saad-Roy C, Arinaminpathy N, Wingreen N, Levin S, Akey J, Grenfell B. Implications of localized charge for human influenza A H1N1 hemagglutinin evolution: Insights from deep mutational scans. PLoS Comput Biol. 2020;16(6):e1007892. PMCID: PMC7316228 1.Qin B, Fei C, Bridges A, Mashruwala A, Stone H, Wingreen N, Bassler B. Cell position fates and collective fountain flow in bacterial biofilms revealed by light-sheet microscopy. Science. 2020;369(6499):71–77. PMCID: PMC7426073 1.Li Z, Liu B, Li S, King C, Gitai Z, Wingreen N. Modeling microbial metabolic trade-offs in a chemostat. PLoS Comput Biol. 2020;16(8):e1008156. PMCID: PMC7482850 1.Fei C, Mao S, Yan J, Alert R, Stone H, Bassler B, Wingreen N, Košmrlj A. Nonuniform growth and surface friction determine bacterial biofilm morphology on soft substrates. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020;117(14):7622–7632. PMCID: PMC7148565 1.Rath S, Prangley E, Donovan J, Demarest K, Wingreen N, Meir Y, Korennykh A. Concerted 2-5A-Mediated mRNA Decay and Transcription Reprogram Protein Synthesis in the dsRNA Response. Mol Cell. 2019;75(6):1218–1228.e6. PMCID: PMC6754276 1.Weiner B, Posfai A, Wingreen N. Spatial ecology of territorial populations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019;116(36):17874–17879. PMCID: PMC6731762 1.Mayer A, Zhang Y, Perelson A, Wingreen N. Regulation of T cell expansion by antigen presentation dynamics. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019;116(13):5914–5919. PMCID: PMC6442601 1.Yan J, Fei C, Mao S, Moreau A, Wingreen N, Košmrlj A, Stone H, Bassler B. Mechanical instability and interfacial energy drive biofilm morphogenesis. Elife. 2019;8. PMCID: PMC6453567 1.Ali M, Huang K, Wingreen N, Mukhopadhyay R. Cell geometry and leaflet bilayer asymmetry regulate domain formation in plasma membranes. Phys Rev E. 2019;99(1-1):012401. PMCID: PMC6553634 1.Chitrakar A, Rath S, Donovan J, Demarest K, Li Y, Sridhar R, Weiss S, Kotenko S, Wingreen N, Korennykh A. Real-time 2-5A kinetics suggest that interferons β and λ evade global arrest of translation by RNase L. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019;116(6):2103–2111. PMCID: PMC6369740 1.Wang S-W, Bitbol A-F, Wingreen N. Revealing evolutionary constraints on proteins through sequence analysis. PLoS Comput Biol. 2019;15(4):e1007010. PMCID: PMC6502352 1.Beroz F, Yan J, Sabass B, Stone H, Bassler B, Wingreen N, Meir Y. Verticalization of bacterial biofilms. Nat Phys. 2018;14(9):954–960. PMCID: PMC6426328 1.Shin Y, Chang Y-C, Lee D, Berry J, Sanders D, Ronceray P, Wingreen N, Haataja M, Brangwynne C. Liquid Nuclear Condensates Mechanically Sense and Restructure the Genome. Cell. 2018;175(6):1481–1491.e13. PMCID: PMC6724728 1.Yan J, Moreau A, Khodaparast S, Perazzo A, Feng J, Fei C, Mao S, Mukherjee S, Košmrlj A, Wingreen N, Bassler B, Stone H. Bacterial Biofilm Material Properties Enable Removal and Transfer by Capillary Peeling. Adv Mater. 2018;30(46):e1804153. PMCID: PMC8865467 1.Tareen A, Wingreen N, Mukhopadhyay R. Modeling evolution of crosstalk in noisy signal transduction networks. Phys Rev E. 2018;97(2-1):020402. PMCID: PMC5973540 1.Li S, Li Z, Park J, King C, Rabinowitz J, Wingreen N, Gitai Z. Escherichia coli translation strategies differ across carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus limitation conditions. Nat Microbiol. 2018;3(8):939–947. PMCID: PMC6278830 1.Ali M, Wingreen N, Mukhopadhyay R. Hidden long evolutionary memory in a model biochemical network. Phys Rev E. 2018;97(4-1):040401. PMCID: PMC5973509 1.Rosenzweig E, Xu B, Cuellar L, Martinez-Sanchez A, Schaffer M, Strauss M, Cartwright H, Ronceray P, Plitzko J, Förster F, Wingreen N, Engel B, Mackinder L, Jonikas M. The Eukaryotic CO-Concentrating Organelle Is Liquid-like and Exhibits Dynamic Reorganization. Cell. 2017;171(1):148–162.e19. PMCID: PMC5671343 1.Taillefumier T, Posfai A, Meir Y, Wingreen N. Microbial consortia at steady supply. Elife. 2017;6. PMCID: PMC5419753 Related News Singling out a bacterium from the crowd Research Area Biochemistry, Biophysics & Structural Biology Quantitative & Computational Biology