What We Do

Colloids are fluid-suspended, microscopically small particles found in gels, glasses and suspensions that form more than 95% of biological fluids, as well as everyday substances between liquid and solid state — think paint, shampoo and yogurt. But even though colloidal materials are found in all aspects of life, only recent advances in computational modeling have shed light on the material structure that makes them useful. The Zia Lab’s computational modeling has led the way in many of these advances.

We work in four areas:

• Constructing theories predicting the spatial arrangement of Brownian particles in liquids
• Mechanistically explaining non-equilibrium phase transitions in colloids
• Large-scale modeling of confined colloidal suspensions
• Modeling the physics of living cells

Our vision

Our ultimate vision is to use physico-chemical based modeling of whole-cell function to create a platform for deepening understanding of how cells function, uncovering cellular-based disease mechanisms and discovering corresponding pathways for novel physics-based therapeutics.