2021 Small World in Motion Competition

Dr. Alexa Mattheyses earned her Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Michigan in the laboratory of Daniel Axelrod where she helped develop new microscopy approaches. She conducted postdoctoral research at the Institut Pasteur and Rockefeller University where she applied fluorescence microscopy to cell biology. Mattheyses then joined the faculty of Emory University where she became Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and co-Director of the Integrated Cellular Imaging microscopy core facility. Mattheyses moved her research program to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she is currently Associate Professor of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology and Director of the High-Resolution Imaging Facility. Her research aims to apply optical microscopy techniques to better understand cellular communication and provide insight into the cellular basis for human health and disease. Dr. Mattheyses is also faculty in the analytical and quantitative light microscopy course (AQLM) at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, MA.

Dr. Hesper Rego trained as a physicist in both her undergraduate and graduate studies. She did her graduate work with the late Mats Gustafsson at UCSF and Janelia Farm. In his group, she developed a nonlinear form of Structured-Illumination Microscopy. Afterwards, wanting to explore a biological phenomenon, Dr. Rego did her postdoctoral work with Eric Rubin at the Harvard School of Public Health where she became fascinated by the ability of genetically identical organisms to display different phenotypes. This phenomenon is especially important for the treatment of certain infectious diseases like tuberculosis. Dr. Rego currently leads a research group at the intersection of these two areas, the application of advanced light microscopy techniques to investigate the strategies pathogens use to survive the stresses imposed by antibiotics and the host.