Utilizing cutting-edge technology, and enabled by world-class research infrastructure at WPI's Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center, our faculty explore diverse research interests that include topics ranging from cancer biology, neurobiology and microbiology research to studies of brain plasticity and pollinator decline. Student-driven research benefits from close mentorship by dynamic faculty who encourage creativity and inquisitiveness. Driven by interdisciplinary teams of WPI faculty and industry partners, research at WPI is making an impact.
Research Faculty
David Adams
Neurotrophic factors as potential treatments for stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. Learn more about the Adams lab’s research.
Tanja Dominko
Investigation of the molecular basis of extracellular environment on gene expression, life span and developmental potential of human cells for applications in regenerative medicine, wound healing and cancer. Learn more about the Dominko lab’s research.
Joseph Duffy
Defining signaling pathways that program cellular diversity and underlie oncogenic and neurodegenerative diseases. Learn more about the Duffy lab’s research.
Robert Gegear
Using insect pollinators as a model to study brain-behavior relationships within a larger ecological and evolutionary framework. Learn more about the Gegear lab’s research.
Amity Manning
Defining regulators of chromatin structure and genome stability in cancer. Learn more about the Manning lab’s research.
Lauren Mathews
Understanding the behavioral and evolutionary processes that affect and generate biological diversity, particularly in aquatic ecosystems and plant-insect interactions. Learn more about the Mathews lab’s research.
Samuel Politz
Genetic control of surface composition in the nematode C. elegans as an adaptive mechanism in nematode parasitism. Learn more about the Politz lab’s research.
Reeta Prusty Rao
Infectious Disease research, specifically identification of fungal virulence factors, host defense mechanisms, and novel antimicrobial therapeutics. Learn more about the Rao lab’s research.
Elizabeth F Ryder
Bioinformatics and computational approaches to understanding biological systems. Learn more about the Ryder lab’s research.
Scarlet Shell
Unraveling the mysteries of mycobacterial stress response pathways by investigating the relationships between gene regulation and tolerance of antibiotics and environmental stressors. Learn more about the Shell lab’s research.
Jagan Srinivasan
Defining how neurons interpret social signals both individually and as members of a circuit to produce specific behaviors. Learn more about the Srinivasan lab’s research.
Luis Vidali
Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the role of the cytoskeleton in plant cell organization and growth. Learn more about the Vidali lab’s research.
Pamela Weathers
Investigation of Artemisia annua antimalarial, antimicrobial and anti-cancer drug production in planta, and bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy in vitro and in vivo. Learn more about the Weathers lab’s research.