Rate My Professor Ingmar Riedel-Kruse

Ingmar Riedel-Kruse is a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at The University of Arizona, holding additional professorships in Biomedical Engineering, the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Mathematics, the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Genetics, and Physics. He previously served as Associate Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona and Assistant Professor in Bioengineering at Stanford University. Earlier in his career, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology and a business consultant at Accenture in Germany. Riedel-Kruse earned his PhD in Biophysics from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics and the Technical University Dresden in 2005, along with a Diploma in Physics from the Technical University Dresden.

His research specializes in understanding and engineering multicell systems and behaviors through synthetic biology, biophysics, microbiology, mathematics, and interaction design. The Riedel-Kruse Lab has pioneered interactive biotechnologies, including biotic games, cloud labs for remote experimentation, Lego liquid handling robots, and LudusScope smartphone microscopy to advance science education. Key advancements encompass biofilm lithography for optogenetic cell patterning, synthetic adhesins for programming multicellular morphologies, and microbial fuel cells for methane conversion. Representative publications include "4-bit adhesion logic enables universal multicellular interface patterning" (Nature, 2022), "A genetically encoded adhesin toolbox for programming multicellular morphologies and patterns" (Cell, 2018), "Polygonal motion and adaptable phototaxis via flagellar beat switching in the microswimmer Euglena gracilis" (Nature Physics, 2018), "Biofilm Lithography enables high-resolution cell patterning via optogenetic adhesin expression" (PNAS, 2018), "Interactive and Scalable Biology Cloud Experimentation for Scientific Inquiry and Education" (Nature Biotechnology, 2016), "Synchrony dynamics during initiation, failure and rescue of the segmentation clock" (Science, 2007), and "A self-organized vortex array of hydrodynamically entrained sperm cells" (Science, 2005). He has secured grants as principal investigator for projects on synthetic bacterial adhesions and biofilm lithography and serves on the Executive Committee of the Applied Biosciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Program.