https://www.bastounislab.org/news daily 0.75 2026-02-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/ca929f7b-1355-459c-9e5d-f9b0d7ad77b9/Muenkel_Graphical_Abstract.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/940eb14d-5092-4ca7-a927-5c00edfe5383/Picture+1.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/5ef208b3-9ce4-43e7-9e65-dde19aa872f1/Screenshot+2025-11-04+at+11.15.22.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/ab00e6b4-d144-4fda-a7b0-ac40ad4c6d21/Cover_v5.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/5d1fea84-b556-4a16-9fe9-d593923fbfe5/protocol.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/98ab9095-c79c-43b8-9f2e-92da33d9b740/modeling.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/06cabf5d-672d-4420-b600-c735bfbc7dff/Screenshot+2024-02-06+at+09.58.31.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/272a068e-612f-4e44-ba6f-f06f5e1aa0d5/FylLx3pWYAwt4ga.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/4cb5aa27-f5b6-4a09-ac53-45a2176bd09e/Screenshot+2023-03-29+at+14.22.07.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/ea64420c-7e2a-47c6-8333-51ca6a0e935e/gr1.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/852b3df7-af73-44f5-8511-902770a09c19/Screen+Shot+2022-11-12+at+11.44.41+AM.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/70abc96b-13fc-4ff6-a72c-5e240c708550/Figure2t.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/37710262-dab9-4597-86a7-2372d64cd1ca/7.+Figure_7.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/06dc06d5-ca12-4fb4-b83a-eb86a49cba25/mmbr.jpg News https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/34c38751-879d-42c4-97ac-817e6ba987b2/Screen+Shot+2021-11-15+at+5.45.28+PM.png News How do macrophages spread infection into underlying endothelia on an endothelium-on-chip device that allows exposed of cells to fluid flow? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/05f3e599-5e56-46f5-a8d9-2edf49f2d4f4/Screen+Shot+2021-11-08+at+9.37.37+AM.png News Biomechanics of bacterial infection spread in a multiplex cell stretching device that mimics intestinal peristalsis. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1631685772908-IJ1WD2O6X69FRD4W8PUT/1631627263315.jpg News https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1626439690886-EOZSD5JV6T8ST0C5V16S/IMG-5223.jpg News https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1621925804177-GGK6HMBSXU0TW61D8I2K/Graph_abstract_v2.jpg News https://www.bastounislab.org/news/get-out-there-l2gpm monthly 0.5 2021-03-24 https://www.bastounislab.org/news/why-deserts-matter-too-fgmmc monthly 0.5 2021-02-23 https://www.bastounislab.org/home daily 1.0 2023-06-30 https://www.bastounislab.org/research daily 0.75 2021-07-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1607982280992-BU5I3MRMHG02C96CELYZ/Screen+Shot+2020-12-14+at+1.01.24+PM.png Research Study of host cell-pathogen interactions and biomechanics and multiple length and time scales Through our research we envision discovering novel biomechanical virulence mechanisms that bacteria employ to spread and also new aspects of host cell and tissue mechanobiology. Learn more about our specific projects https://www.bastounislab.org/team daily 0.75 2026-01-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1621927363299-YV24PKH1B0VZCUZ48846/E_Bastounis.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/d80aacc8-0074-4ce7-88ff-00fe8c1ad923/Image.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/becad7bf-8897-49ff-98e0-e854d273704f/Picture_Lara.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/2dd16629-2d96-4f88-86de-7c64f653875d/nadine.webp Team Nadine Oder PHD STUDENT Nadine is a PhD student investigating the impact of shear stress on endothelial cell mechanotransduction and how that modulated the dissemination of intracellular pathogens. She holds a BSc and a MSc in Technical Biology from the University of Stuttgart. Previously she studied mechano-regulation of skeletal muscle cell morphogenesis on 3D-printed hydrogels. email: nadine.oder[at]uni-tuebingen.de https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/2646307c-fec9-4206-ba3c-3660384affb3/IMG-20251005-WA0002.jpg Team Julio Sanchez Rendon PHD STUDENT Julio is a PhD student at the Bastounis Lab and investigates how the fluid shear stresses and gradients exerted over endothelial cells alter cell motility and susceptibility to infection. He holds a BS and MSc in Chemical Engineering and Biology from the National University of Colombia and the University of Caldas. Previously, he studied methods for model calibration and validation applied to mathematical models of biological processes. email: julio.sanchez[at]uni-tuebingen.de https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9994-1235 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/7f22f20e-4516-44ae-9253-5e23034d9370/annika.png Team Annika Blaufuss PHD STUDENT Annika is a PhD student at the Bastounis Lab and investigates how host-pathogen interactions in epithelial monolayers using an organotypic streching device and biomechanical approaches. She holds a BS in Biomedicine from Linkoeping University and a MSc in Physiology and Pharmacology from the Karolinska Institute. Previously, she studied electrophysiology and epigenetics of metabolic disease. email: annika.blaufuss[at]uni-tuebingen.de https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1c5a6631-8454-4589-a9be-f97311bb7abb/Raul.jpg Team Raúl Aparicio Yuste Postdoc Raúl is a Postdoc at the Bastounis lab and holds a PhD in Biomedical engineering from the University of Zaragoza. His research activity is focused on developing computational models to study infective agents at the cellular level by analysing the mechanobiology of host cells in silico. Previously he worked at the University of Zaragoza M2BE group. Raul has been awarded the prestigious two-year Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. email: raul.aparicio-yuste[at]uni-tuebingen.de https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4617-8130 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1609657985466-OP6QPIH9N9C6Y349ZUYI/Screen+Shot+2021-01-03+at+9.11.30+AM.png Team Michal Caspi Tal PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST Michal Caspi Tal, PhD, is a is a principal scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She leads the Tal Research Group within the Department of Biological Engineering where she studies host-pathogen interactions and diversity of immune responses to tick-borne diseases. Her group is particularly focused on immune responses to infectious disease that have gone awry (more). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1609657193788-5M3WWEPXQDNOXJA4B4IH/Screen+Shot+2021-01-03+at+8.58.32+AM.png Team Gerald Fuller and Alex Dunn PROFESSORS Alex Dunn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. His research focuses on understanding how living cells sense mechanical stimuli, with particular interests in stem cell biology and tissue engineering (more). Gerald Fuller is Fletcher Jones II Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford and between other builds in vitro flow devices to study physiological flow in blood and lymphatic vessels (more). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1609657502925-S60X348TVA6FZA7UAZ6B/Screen+Shot+2021-01-03+at+9.04.42+AM.png Team Maria Gómez-Benito PROFESSOR María Gómez-Benito ‘s work is focused on computational modeling of fracture and wound healing and designing of multiscale in vitro and in silico platforms for microfluidic devices of tumoral extravasion. More recently she is interested in understanding how cell mechanobiology is altered by bacterial infection through computational models (more). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/490a579d-9d19-4351-b9e6-06b0e89d7726/Screen+Shot+2022-11-13+at+7.53.42+AM.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1611302678631-PE8L18D7049VVO5I0A7P/IMG_2015.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/9be37513-f40b-44a8-8983-4549727fa035/peter.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1609658285573-T6IS6DKBP642S73W8WEB/Screen+Shot+2021-01-03+at+9.14.43+AM.png Team lordania Constantinou PROFESSOR Iordania Constantinou is a Professor at the Institute of Microtechnology at Technische Universität Braunschweig. Her research focuses on the development of novel microsystems for use in the life sciences. Example systems include microfluidics, microsensors, and organ-on-chip platforms (more). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/6fd01ed7-2f84-4f7d-a1fe-9a0178acf966/Screenshot+2025-05-08+at+10.30.41.png Team Serge Mostowy PROFESSOR Serge Mostowy is a Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His lab investi-gates novel roles for the cytoskeleton in innate immunity and has also developed the zebrafish as an important model to study the cell biology of infection and therapeutic potential of targeting the cytoskeleton in vivo (more). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/812b6313-bd9b-4587-be6a-040b492f358f/Screenshot+2025-05-08+at+11.01.26.jpg Team - Tilman Schäffer PROFESSOR Yi-Ting Yeh RESEARCH SCIENTIST Yi-Ting Yeh, PhD, is a Research Scientist at UC San Diego working on inflammatory and infectious vascular diseases. She also has vast expertise on vascular biomechanics, nano-fabrication and scanning electron microscopy (more). https://www.bastounislab.org/publications daily 0.75 2026-01-28 https://www.bastounislab.org/gallery daily 0.75 2025-05-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1607100804691-2U75TBJ2MN334RV348YA/Cover_v3.png Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1607100333527-7QFNQIJYW0N2WRVS3SVZ/Composite-scale_bar.jpg Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1607099287033-JZAHDNURCWW237556SAH/ND_008.png Gallery In collaboration with Yi-Ting Yeh, UCSD https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1607099338929-567GP12ZWXWFTAC0Q9PM/ND_002.jpg Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1607099386412-LUFEZD98UPMIQADLKWOR/ND_015.png Gallery https://www.bastounislab.org/specific-projects daily 0.75 2021-07-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1607452487986-LNT3UZIBRJABVJZQE1AZ/Screen+Shot+2020-12-08+at+10.32.41+AM.png Specific projects Orthogonal views of uninfected (left) or L. monocytogenes-infected MDCK epithelial cells (right) at 24 h post-infection. Host cell nuclei: yellow, L. monocytogenes: black. Note the infection mound with cells piled up on the right. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1608369087938-JUHLL3LE8AJCW7O42I4J/Screen+Shot+2020-12-19+at+11.10.53+AM.png Specific projects Sketch depicting different techniques we use to probe host cell mechanics during infection by intracellular bacterial pathogens. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc804f17f7a640dcc579f3f/1607451222627-B22I0A4RF36VRHVMMT47/macrophage_endo.jpg Specific projects Left: Cartoon depicting heterotypic interactions of L. monocytogenes-infected macrophages with endothelial cells. Right: Phase contrast images of uninfected endothelial cells (controls) or endothelial cells exposed to L. monocytogenes-infected macrophages. https://www.bastounislab.org/contact daily 0.75 2023-06-29 https://www.bastounislab.org/teaching daily 0.75 2023-06-29 https://www.bastounislab.org/teaching-1 daily 0.75 2025-05-08