The Lomakin Lab
Principal Investigator (PI):
Alexis J. Lomakin, Ph.D.
Short biography:
Alexis is an international cell biologist with a strong interdisciplinary background in biological and quantitative sciences. He earned his Ph.D. from the UConn Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling (USA) and the School of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics at MSU (RU). His research follows the 3M paradigm ("Measure-Model-Manipulate"), combining advanced optical microscopy with computer vision to extract quantitative data from images. These data, together with controlled experimental perturbations, are used to build mathematical models that can explain how observable cell phenotypes arise in response to stress, such as drug exposure or mechanical injury. He currently leads a research group at the Medical University of Vienna (AT). Previously, he held positions as a Junior PI at King’s College London (UK) and as a Postdoc at Harvard University (USA). His work has been published in leading journals and supported by competitive national and international funding.
Scientific background:
Alexis was trained in the field of the cytoskeleton and quantitative microscopy, working on the topics of microtubule dynamic instability and its role in interphase cell transport & cytoplasm patterning (Lomakin et al., Developmental Cell, 2009), and actomyosin system self-organization as a driver of symmetry-breaking and cell shape polarity (Lomakin et al., Nature Cell Biology, 2015) in animal tissue cells. Establishing his independent program, he became interested in how these observable phenotypic traits of cells change in response to various stresses, and whether the phenotypic change can confer a fitness advantage without necessarily engaging the elaborate programs serving the genotype. While his team's previous efforts in this area were concentrated primarily on mechanical environmental stress sensing and phenotypic resistance (Lomakin et al., Science, 2020), the current focus is on chemical (drug-induced) stress sensing and adaptation (Belhadj et al., Aging Cell, 2023). To this end, Alexis's group employs mechanistic cell biology, quantitative cell imaging and sorting, biophysics, and molecular -omics along with computational modeling. The global long-term objective is to discover the universal regulatory mechanisms and principles behind stress-response programs operating in any type of eukaryotic cell, independent of whether the stressor is a biophysical injury or a chemical drug-induced signal.
Service to the international academic community:
Invited reviewer for research grants from funding agencies
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ERC – European Research Council (EU), ERC-STG-LS3 Starting Grant scheme
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MRC – Medical Research Council (UK)
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ANR – French National Research Agency (FR)
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ISF – Israel Science Foundation (IL)
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WWCR – Worldwide Cancer Research (UK)
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Dunhill Medical Trust (UK)
Invited reviewer for journals
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Developmental Cell
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Current Biology
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Journal of Cell Biology
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PNAS
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Nature Communications
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Science Advances
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Aging Cell
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Cell Systems
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Journal of Cell Science

Medical University of Vienna
Center for Pathobiochemistry and Genetics