Paul Kulesa

Biography

Paul Kulesa specializes in the visualization of complex cell dynamics in the embryo. One of the major challenges in our better understanding of embryogenesis is our inability to accurately identify and follow single cell behaviors and correlate these behaviors with changes in a cell’s molecular profile. Work in his lab ranges from strategies of multicolor cell labeling and multispectral imaging to analyzing gene expression patterns from cells captured by laser microdissection. The goal of this work is to provide a set of imaging-based tools that allow for more accurate in vivo interrogation of cells in the living embryo. Kulesa received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of Washington, working with Prof. J.D. Murray FRS, a world-renowned expert in modeling biological pattern formation. He was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Burroughs Wellcome Fund postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Scott E. Fraser at the California Institute of Technology, where he was able to draw on Fraser’s wonderful expertise in selective cell labeling and live embryo imaging. He joined the Stowers Institute in 2002 and applies his interdisciplinary background in mathematics, imaging, and biology.

Research Interest

Modeling biological pattern formation, Multispectral imaging