Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
I am an interdisciplinary biologist and systems thinker exploring how cognition, perception, and decision-making emerge in aneural systems. My research integrates molecular biology, bioelectric signaling, and computational modeling to investigate how single cells and collectives form internal representations of the world, maintain identity, and exhibit adaptive behavior. I most recently worked as a Senior Research Technician in the Levin Lab at Tufts University, where I studied the slime mold Physarum polycephalum as a model for aneural information processing. My projects included developing imaging pipelines for long-term behavioral tracking, designing culturing methods for microplasmodial reintegration, and quantifying predictive and goal-directed dynamics in Physarum. This work contributes to broader efforts to understand the origins of cognition and the mechanisms underlying self-organization and biological computation. Lab website: https://drmichaellevin.org Previously, I worked as a Research Technician II in the Niyogi Lab at UC Berkeley, where I developed the first stable laboratory population of Stentor pyriformis and investigated endosymbiotic interactions that drive the evolution of photosynthetic regulation. Earlier, at the University of Maryland, I performed TILLING-based genetic screens in wheat to identify genes involved in flowering-time regulation. My broader research interests lie at the intersection of aneural cognition, cellular information storage, morphogenesis, and the Free Energy Principle, connecting empirical experimentation with theoretical frameworks for embodied intelligence. Selected Technical Skills Experimental Biology: CRISPR pipelines, cloning, plant transformation, PCR, fluorescence and confocal microscopy, FLIM, histology, primary cell culture Imaging & Computation: Confocal Fluorescent Microscopy, SIM, FLIM, ImageJ/Fiji, Imaris, Mathematica, Python, R, Huygens, Adobe Creative Cloud Data Analysis: Quantitative modeling, image segmentation, behavioral data extraction, statistical visualization Languages: English (fluent), Hebrew (intermediate), French (beginner) Publications: The Cell Biology and Genome of Stentor pyriformis (2024, preprint) [DOI: 10.1101/2024.12.19.629502] Chlorophyll to Zeaxanthin Energy Transfer in Non-Photochemical Quenching (2024) [DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.11.561813]
Data analysis on former wet-lab work to prepare a publication.