Current Members

Portrait of Sidhartha Goyal

Sidhartha Goyal

Principal investigator (PI)

Sid Goyal got his PhD in Physics at Princeton in 2009 and then moved to KITP, UC Santa Barbara for a postdoc. He got his first degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay. Since 2014, he is an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department at University of Toronto’s downtown (St. George) campus.

Portrait of Spencer Farrell

Spencer Farrell

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Working on understanding cell fate dynamics from recently emerging large single cell RNA sequencing datasets. Homepage

Portrait of Samuel Lui

Samuel Lui

PhD Student

He has an interest in studying networks and complex systems. Homepage

Portrait of Zhi Zhang

Zhi Zhang

PhD Student

Zhi Zhang is a PhD student in Sid’s group, focusing on the fascinating dynamics of bacteria-phage interactions. His research aims to uncover the molecular mechanisms that govern these interactions, with implications for understanding microbial ecosystems and therapeutic applications. Outside the lab, Zhi is an avid cyclist who enjoys exploring new trails and staying active. He also appreciates unwinding with good company and a well-crafted drink.

Portrait of Sophie McGibbon-Gardner

Sophie McGibbon-Gardner

PhD Student

Her current interests relate to diversity growth of genetically identical cells, particularly during cellular reprogramming and short term cancer therapy resistance. Homepage

Portrait of Colin Brandys

Colin Brandys

PhD Student

Working on biophysics research with a particular interest in aging. Homepage

Portrait of Casey Ka Wun Leung

Casey Ka Wun Leung

PhD Student

His research interests relate to biophysics of developmental biology and regenerations. Homepage

Portrait of Jun Jang

Jun Jang

PhD Student

Jun earned his undergraduate degree in Physics from Cornell University. Now in his first year of advanced study, he is delving into the world of biophysics, with a special focus on its human dimensions.

Portrait of Braulio Ojeda Valencia

Braulio Ojeda Valencia

Master Student

I’m Braulio and I’m currently a MSc student at the Goyal research group. I’ll be studying intercellular communication and repair using machine learning techniques. I did my undergrad here at UofT, where I was involved in materials science research. In my free time, I enjoy reading and listening to music.

Portrait of Aidan Wong

Aidan Wong

Master Student

Aidan is from Edmonton, where he completed his BSc in Honors Physics at the University of Alberta. He is currently a MSc student at the Goyal Biophysics Lab where he is pursuing his interests in biological systems. Outside of research, he likes reading, playing the board game Diplomacy, and cooking.

Alumni

Chris Nunn

Worked on mitochondrial aging, maintenance, and inheritance, and experimental tools to detect mitochondrial DNA diversity in populations of yeast, as well as models to describe this distribution of DNA resulting from both cell and population level selection.

Nava Leibovich

Her research was concentrated on studying stochastic process, using analytical and numerical approach together with simulations.

Madeleine Bonsna-Fisher

Worked on bacterial-virus evolutionary arms race as found in the CRISPR system.

Ue-Yu Pen

Worked on Prophage Ecology in the background of bacteria-phage competition.

Sabyasachi Dasgupta

His major interests was towards single cell genomics, specifically towards constructing cell-lineage relationships and cell to cell transition dynamics.

Dominique Soutiere

She developed a model for phage-bacteria coevolutionary dynamics.

Marat Mufteev

He wrote his MSc thesis on physical and mathematical models of cellular reprogramming and differentiation.

Christian Farfan

He developed theoretical tools to understand multilevel selection.