Pablo Iglesias has been named interim head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
In addition to his primary ECE appointment, he holds secondary appointments in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics and the departments of Cell Biology and Biomedical Engineering at the School of Medicine. He has many years’ experience in teaching and has won several awards.
In his research, he uses computational techniques grounded in control and information theory to study biological signal transduction pathways. He investigates how cells interpret directional cues to guide cell motion, the regulatory mechanisms that control cell division, and the sensing and actuation that enable cells to maintain lipid homeostasis. His computational models largely explore two stages of cell division—mitotic spindle formation and cytokinesis—and how cells direct motion. Applications of his work include engineering “killer cells” that can engulf pathogens with high efficiency, analyzing the implications of cell morphology, and predicting behavioral changes that lead cells to become metastatic.