Research

The roster below is still my Earlham group. I’m just starting to build my group at Smith.

The group

Current group members include I accept new students into the group every semester that I’m on campus, so email me (mglerner@smith.edu) if you’re interested in joining!

Recent activity

Sharon, Aouss and I went to LA for the 2025 annual meeting of the Biophysical Society. On the left, you can see the three of us in front of their poster. On the right, you can see them presenting to Alan Grossfield in the conference’s main poster session!


Research areas

Research is conducted entirely with undergraduates, and I strongly believe that undergraduate-centered research means teaching students to ask and answer their own questions. So, the speed of work within different groups changes quite a bit depending on which topics current students are interested in. That said, we work in three main areas:
  1. Cancer: identifying and targeting the drivers of metastasis.
  2. Membrane diffusion: understanding the basic physics of membrane diffusion, and developing new analysis methods.
  3. DNA: using molecular dynamics simulations to understand the transition between right-handed and left-handed structures.
One project in the group is currently on hold:
  1. Protein structure and function (including simulations and computational topology).