Ido Golding

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• Golding Lab Website

Biography

Professor Ido Golding received his Ph.D in physics from Tel Aviv University (Israel) in 2001. Originally trained as a condensed matter theorist, he later spent five years learning the experimental arsenal of modern molecular biology. From 2002 to 2006, Professor Golding was a Lewis Thomas Research Fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. He joined the faculty of the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007. In 2019, Professor Golding returned to the Department of Physics from Baylor College of Medicine, where he was a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Research Statement

In our lab, we examine the way living cells process information from their environment and make decisions based on that information.

Our aim is to form a quantitative narrative for the dynamics of cellular decision-making and unveil simple principles that underlie such processes. Our first model system is the bacterium E. coli and its virus, phage lambda. We examine their complex interaction at the level of individual events in space and time. More recently, we have begun to extend our studies to higher organisms.

Work in the lab involves a set of skills broader than what is generally mastered within a single discipline, including the techniques of molecular- and cell biology; live single-cell microscopy for making quantitative measurements; and data analysis using the engineer's toolbox of signal- and image processing; all accompanied by the theoretical tools of dynamical systems theory, stochastic processes, non-equilibrium phenomena and more.

The practice of modern in vivo biology, combined with the intellectual effort of a quantitative approach, will contribute significantly to a young scientist's training experience, better preparing them for the future world of "Systems Biology".

Prospective students and post-docs of all backgrounds (physics, biology, chemistry, engineering, etc.) are welcome to contact me.

Recent Courses Taught

• PHYS 326 - Classical Mechanics II