M. Prakash

Algorithmic construction of topologically complex biomineral lattices via cellular syncytia

This paper demonstrates how cellular syncytia control the growth of complex calcite ossicles through transport processes and cytoskeletal architecture.

ESPressoscope: a small and powerful platform for in situ microscopy

The paper introduces ESPressoscope, a low-cost, portable digital microscope platform for in situ imaging, demonstrating its versatility and accessibility for various biological and ecological applications.

Innate Immune Activation and Mitochondrial ROS Invoke Persistent Cardiac Conduction System Dysfunction after COVID-19

This study shows that SARS-CoV-2 infection causes persistent cardiac conduction system dysfunction in hamsters, driven by innate immune activation and mitochondrial ROS, with potential implications for long COVID.

Curved crease origami and topological singularities at a cellular scale enable hyper-extensibility of Lacrymaria olor

This paper describes how curved crease origami and topological singularities enable hyper-extensibility in the protist Lacrymaria olor, linking geometry to cellular morphodynamics.

Emergent Programmable Behavior and Chaos in Dynamically Driven Active Filaments

This paper models active filaments to show how dynamic activity patterns can produce periodic and chaotic behaviors, offering a framework for understanding single-cell dynamics and designing programmable active matter systems.

Energetics of the Microsporidian Polar Tube Invasion Machinery

This study analyzes the biophysical energy requirements of microsporidian polar tube ejection using 3D imaging and theoretical modeling.

Thermotaxis in an apolar, non-neuronal animal

This study discovers robust thermotaxis in Trichoplax adhaerens, an apolar, neuronless animal, showing it can detect thermal gradients and respond with Levy-distributed movement.

Inflation induced motility for long-distance vertical migration

This study identifies a cellular inflation mechanism in Pyrocystis noctiluca that enables non-motile plankton to regulate density and reverse sedimentation.

Topological damping in an ultrafast giant cell

The paper investigates how Spirostomum ambiguum dissipates energy during ultrafast contractions by discovering a novel RER-vacuole entangled meshwork and modeling its mechanical properties as topological damping.

Active Sinking Particles: Sessile Suspension Feeders significantly alter the Flow and Transport to Sinking Aggregates

The paper studies how feeding currents from attached protists alter flow and transport around sinking biological aggregates, impacting their dynamics and material fluxes.

Squid: Simplifying Quantitative Imaging Platform Development and Deployment

Squid provides an affordable, open-source imaging platform with modular hardware and software for deploying advanced microscopy techniques in research and low-resource settings.

Vectorchip: Microfluidic platform for highly parallel bite by bite profiling of mosquito-borne pathogen transmission

Vectorchip enables high-throughput analysis of individual mosquito bites to study pathogen transmission dynamics and infectious viral particles.

Plankton Planet: 'seatizen' oceanography to assess open ocean life at the planetary scale

Plankton Planet uses citizen science to collect global plankton biodiversity data via DNA barcodes, achieving comparable quality to Tara Oceans with a scalable, open-access approach.

Epithelial Tissues as Active Solids: From Nonlinear Contraction Pulses to Rupture Resistance

This paper shows that mechanical cell-cell interactions alone can generate contraction pulses and enhance tissue rupture resistance in epithelial tissues.

PlanktonScope: Affordable modular imaging platform for citizen oceanography

PlanktonScope provides an affordable modular imaging platform for oceanographic research, enabling high-throughput imaging in both lab and field settings.

BiteOscope: an open platform to study mosquito blood-feeding behavior

BiteOscope quantifies mosquito blood-feeding behavior using a host mimic and machine learning, revealing DEET repels Anopheles coluzzii.

Octopi: Open configurable high-throughput imaging platform for infectious disease diagnosis in the field

The paper develops a low-cost automated imaging platform for malaria diagnosis, achieving high sensitivity and specificity in parasitemia quantification.

Motility induced fracture reveals a ductile to brittle crossover in the epithelial tissues of a simple animal

The paper studies epithelial tissue mechanics in Trichoplax Adhaerens, revealing a ductile-to-brittle transition induced by motility and its implications for tissue dynamics and engineering.

Multi-scale spatial heterogeneity enhances particle clearance in airway ciliary arrays

The paper investigates how spatial heterogeneity in airway ciliary arrays enhances particle clearance, finding that disorder improves fluid transport through mechanisms resembling stochastic resonance.

Scale-free Vertical Tracking Microscopy: Towards Bridging Scales in Biological Oceanography

Scale-free vertical tracking microscopy captures untethered behavioral dynamics at cellular resolution for marine plankton.

Collective intercellular communication through ultra-fast hydrodynamic trigger waves

This paper discovers ultra-fast hydrodynamic trigger waves in Spirostomum ambiguum that enable long-range intercellular communication through vortex flows and mechanosensitive ion channels.

Using Mobile Phones As Acoustic Sensors For High-Throughput Mosquito Surveillance

This paper demonstrates using mobile phones as acoustic sensors to map mosquito species distributions globally through species-specific wingbeat sound recordings.

Mapping load-bearing in the mammalian spindle reveals local kinetochore-fiber anchorage that provides mechanical isolation and redundancy

The paper maps load-bearing in the mammalian spindle and identifies local kinetochore-fiber anchorage mechanisms that provide mechanical isolation and redundancy.

Flowtrace: simple visualization of coherent structures in biological fluid flows

The paper introduces a simple algorithm for visualizing time-varying biological fluid flows and demonstrates its application across various systems.