MY RESEARCH
My current research is focused on understanding how structure is created in systems of active matter, liquid-like droplets in the cell, and in population growth. The backbone of my work has focused on the development of large deviation theory, which is a natural extension of statistical mechanics to out-of-equilibrium systems, to make predictions.
Liquid Phase Separation
Population Growth
Within the cell there are liquidlike substructures such as Cajal bodies, germ granules, and centrosomes. It is a mystery how these substructures can coexist and not mix. On the cell membrane there is a protein complex called LAT that phase separates to moderate T-cell signalling. My simulations help elucidate the physics and dynamics of this process.
Active Matter
Eco-evo Systems
Understanding how to predict and control population growth of populations of cells such as E. Coli can help us create general principles of nonequilibrium systems. In my latest collaboration with Ethan and Ariel at Harvard, we develop a general theory to measure population growth.
Active Matter
In some systems, ecology and evolution are on similar time-scales which can lead to feedback of ecology on the environment and vice versa. The picture above shows our consumer-resource model in a recent preprint. Each lattice site is a specific phenotype and the dots represents the species of that phenotype.
In out-of-equilibrium systems, structure can be created by dissipating energy. This is the case for active matter. On the microscopic level each particle dissipates energy to move. Without any attraction, there is macroscopic phase separation strictly from the self propulsion. Understanding these types of processes required developing new physics in the field of large deviation theory.
Publications:
[1] GrandPre, T., Levien, E., Amir, A. (2024). Extremal events dictate population growth rate inference. ArXiv:2501.08404
[2] GrandPre, T., Teza, G., Bialek, W. (2024). Direct estimates of irreversibility from time series data. ArXiv:2412.19772.
[3] GrandPre, T., Wingreen, N.S. (2024). Membrane tether density drives biomolecular condensate wetting. bioRxiv:2024.12.04.626804
[4] Martis, S., Schwab, D. S., GrandPre, T.# (2024). Trait space patterning is dictated by the tempo and mode of mutation. bioRxiv:2024.11.21.624779.
[5] Sarra, C., Sarra, L., Di Carlo, L., GrandPre, T., Zhang, Y., Callan, C., Bialek, W. (2024). Maximum entropy models for patterns of gene expression. arXiv:2408.08037
[6] Wu, J., Schwab, D., GrandPre, T. # (2023). Noise driven phase transitions in
eco-evolutionary systems. arXiv:2310.08735
[7] GrandPre, T., Mystery Droplets Inside Cells May Play Vital Roles in Life. Scientific American.
[8] GrandPre, T., Zhang, Y., Pyo, A. G., Weiner, B., Li, J. L., Jonikas, M. C., & Wingreen, N. S. (2023). Effects of linker length on phase separation: lessons from the Rubisco-EPYC1 system of the algal pyrenoid. PRX Life.
[9] He, G., GrandPre, T., Wilson, H., Zhang, Y., Jonikas, M. C., Wingreen, N. S., & Wang, Q. (2023). Phase-separating pyrenoid proteins from complexes in the dilute phase. Communications Biology, 6(1), 19.
[10] Sun, S., GrandPre, T., Limmer, D.T., Groves, J. (2021). Kinetic Constraints Control Membrane Localized Protein Condensation
Science Advances 8, eabo5295
[11] Omar, A., Klymko, K., GrandPre, T., Geissler, P. L., & Brady, J. F. (2021). Tuning Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions with Inertia. arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.10278.
[12] Omar, A., Klymko, K., GrandPre, T., Geissler, P.L. (2021). Phase Diagram of Active Brownian Spheres: Crystallization and the Metastability of Motility-Induced Phase Separation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 188002
[13] GrandPre, T., Klymko, K., Mandadapu, K.K., Limmer, D.T. (2020). Entropy fluctuations encode collective behavior in active matter. Phys. Rev. E 103, 012613
[14] Levien, E.*, GrandPre, T.* , Amir, A. (2020). A large deviation principle linking lineage statistics to fitness. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 048102
[15] GrandPre, T., Limmer, D. T. (2018). Current fluctuations of interacting active Brownian particles. Phys. Rev. E, 98(6), 060601.
*denotes first co-author #denotes corresponding author
​