Lab News

Janury 2026

New preprint!
A Dipolar Photoswitch Modulates Bacterial Membrane Potential and Reveals Context-dependent Bioelectrical Circuitry
We investigated light-induced membrane potential modulation with an azobenzene photoswitch, trying to advance our understanding of bacterial electrophysiology and develop bioelectrical approaches to bacterial engineering biology. Great collaboration with Giuseppe M Paterno at Politecnico di Milano!

Janury 2026

Amanda Do joined the lab. Her project, funded by Leverhulme Trust ( https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/ ), will investigate synapse-like communication in bacteria.

Nov 2025

We welcomed Abby (mbio) and Mitsuki a visitor from Japan. In Novemember, we had a nice Farewell dinner for Mitsuki at Kenilworth.

July 2025

Lab retreat!

We played bowling and pool! It was a very good fun!

July 2025

New members!

Marina(PhD student) joined April 2025, and Sarb (postdoc) joined July 2025! Valentin is also spending a short (2-month) postdoc with us! The lab is getting busy!

April 2025

Top viewed article!

Our paper Membrane Targeted Azobenzene Drives Optical Modulation of Bacterial Membrane Potential has been recognised as a top viewed paper published in Advanced Science in 2023.

Congratulations to the team!

April 11, 2025

Jess (Mbio) and Munehiro attended Bioelectricity cluster meeting. at Oxford. It was great to meet new and old colleagues doing exciting science in this field!

Research

BACTERIAL ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY

Recent studies have shown that bioelectrical signaling is universal in all forms of life -from bacteria, plants to animal somatic cells. While electrophysiology is a central concept in neuroscience, little is still known about bacterial electrophysiology. We are interested in decoding bacterial electrical signaling. Investigating these fundamental cellular processes has potential for new bioelectrical solutions to societal challenges, such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR).


COLLECTIVE DYNAMICS

Self-organization is a universal phenomenon in biology — for example that is how you are formed into a shape by cells. Although bacteria are commonly thought as single-cellular organisms, it has become clear that bacterial cells can also self-organize into dynamic and structured patterns and exhibit multi-cellular properties. Intriguingly, the self-organized communities of microbes, such as biofilms and swarms, can tolerate the levels of antibiotics that are lethal to the genetically identical cells in the isolate. This is important in the face of rising concerns about antimicrobial resistance. We investigate the roles played by physical (e.g. mechanical and electrical) interactions during the emergence of multicellular properties.


ENGINEERING BIOLOGY & TOOL DEVELOPMENT

We won't stop by gaining understanding. We are committed to exploiting our understanding and our ideas to develop new technologies and designs for monitoring and controlling bacterial functions. We make experimental tools using microcomputers and 3D printers and synthetic-biology tools through genetic engineering. We hope to bridge the gap between electronics and biology. One company, Cytecom Ltd, has been spun out from the lab.

Team

Munehiro Asally

Associate Professor - Reader

   

Sarbjit Nijjar

Postdoc Researcher

Tudor Onose

PhD student

Marina Lazic

PhD student

Amanda Do

PhD student

Abelaine Ladinez

Mbio student

ALUMNI:
Postdocs
Valentin Dospinescu (2025), Tailise de Souza (2020-2023), Dario Bazzil (2022), Manjari Ghanshyam (2019-2021), Dmitry Malyshev (2019), Jame Stratford (2015-2018), Teja Sirec (2015-2018)

PhD students
Renee Taylor (2020-2024), Valentin Dospinescu (2020-2024), Segun Wahab (2019-2022), Iago Grobas (2017-2021), Marco Delise (2016-2019)

Master students:
Jessica Alhusari (2024-2025), Tabby Chadney (2023-2024), Izzy Bowen-Lowe (2023-2024), Tudor Onose (2022-2023), Max Harris (2022-2023), Emma Simpson (2020-2021), Marek Podgajny (2019-2020), Brannon Nicholls (2018-2019), Selvi Vickramathithan (2017-2018), Arthur Barker (2017-2018), Shifquat Ullah (2016-2017), Chris Norman (2016-2017), Matthew Painter (2016-2017)

Research Assistant:
Elena Ontanon McDonald (2019)

Visiting students:
Mitsuki Suzuki (PhD, Kyoto University, 2025), Pietro Bertolotti (PhD, IIT, 2022), Mar Moreno (Erasmus+, 2019), Elena Ontanon McDonald (Erasmus+, 2019), Pauline Buffard (MSc Intenship, University Grenoble Alpes, 2017)


Publications

Emergence of synchronised growth oscillations in filamentous fungi
Prakash P, Jiang X, Richards L, Schofield Z, Schafer P, Polin M, Soyer OS, Asally M
Journal of Royal Society Interface 2024, 21(19)
Membrane potential dynamics unveil the promise of Bioelectrical Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (BeAST) for anti-fungal screening
de Souza-Guerreiro TC, Bacellar LH, da Costa TS, Edwards CLA, Tasic L, Asally M
mBio 2024, 15(8)
Thioflavin T indicates membrane potential in mammalian cells and can affect it in a blue light dependent manner
Skates E, Delattre H, Schofield Z, Asally M, Soyer OS
Biophysical Reports, 2023, 3(4), 100134
Phase-separated nuclear bodies of nucleoporin fusions promote condensation of MLL1/CRM1 and rearrangement of 3D genome structure
Oka M, Otani M, Miyamoto Y, Oshima R, Adachi J, Tomonaga T, Asally M, Nagaoka Y, Tanaka K, Toyoda A, Ichikawa K, Morishita S, Isono K, Koseki H, Nakato R, Ohkawa Y, Yoneda Y
Cell Reports, 2023, 42(8)
Membrane targeted azobenzene drives optical modulation of bacterial membrane potential
de Souza TC, Bondelli G, Grobas I, Donini S, Sesti V, Bertarelli C, Lanzani G, Asally M, Paterno GM
Advanced Science, 2023, 10(8)
Electrotaxis behavior of droplets composed of aqueous Belousov-Zhabotinsky solutions suspended in oil phase
Back O, Asally M, Wang Z, Hayashi Y
Scientific Reports, 2023, 13, 1340
The dynamics of single-to-multi layer transition in bacterial swarms
Grobas I, Asally M, Polin M
Frontiers in Soft Matter, 2022, 2:936779
Seeking insights into aging through yeast mitochondrial electrophysiology
de Souza-Guerreiro TC, Asally M
Bioelectricity, 2021, 3(2):111-115
Swarming bacteria undergo localized dynamic phase transition to form stress-induced biofilms
Grobas I, Polin M*, Asally M* (*equal contribution)
eLife, 2021, 10:e62632
An agent-based model for interrelation between COVID-19 outbreak and economic activities
Kano T, Yasui K, Mikami T, Asally M, Ishiguro A
Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 2021, 477(2245)
Biofilm and swarming emergent behaviours controlled through the aid of biophysical understanding and tools
Grobas I, Bazzoli DG, Asally M
Biochemical Society Transactions, 2020, 48(6): 2903-2913
Bioelectrical understanding and engineering of cell biology
Schofield Z, Meloni G, Tran P, Zerfass C, Sena G, Hayashi Y, Grant M, Contera SA, Minteer SD, Kim M, Prindle A, Rocha P, Djamgoz MBA, Pilizota T, Unwin PR, Asally M, Soyer OS.
Journal of Royal Society Interface, 2020, 17(166):20200013
The microbiologist's guide to membrane potential dynamics
Benarroch JM, Asally M
Trends in Microbiology, 2020, 28 (4): 304-314
Scanning conductance microscopy reveals differences in the ionic environments of gram positive and negative bacteria
Cremin K, Jones B, Teahan J, Meloni GM, Perry D, Zerfass C, Asally M, Soyer OS, Unwin PR
Analytical Chemistry, 2020, 92(24): 16024-32
One-dimensional reaction-diffusion model for intra-and inter-biofilm oscillatory dynamics
Mikami T, Asally M, Kano T, Ishiguro A
Artificial Life Conference Proceedings, 2020, 712-714
Pattern engineering of living bacterial colonies using meniscus-driven fluidic channels
Kantsler V, Ontanon-McDonald E*, Kuey C*, Ghanshyam MJ, Roffin MC, Asally M (*equal contribution)
ACS Synthetic Biology, 2020, 9(6):1277–1283
Rapid detection of proliferative bacteria by Electrical Stimulation
Edwards CLA, Malyshev D, Stratford JP, Asally M
Bio-protocol, 2020, 10 (3)
Interrogating metabolism as an electron flow system
Zerfass C, Asally M, Soyer OS
Current Opinion in Systems Biology, 2019, 13: 59-67
Electrical polarization enables integrative quality control during bacterial differentiation into spores
Sirec T, Benarroch JM, Buffard P, Garcia-Ojalvo J, Asally M
iScience, 2019, 16: 378-389
Electrically induced bacterial membrane potential dynamics correspond to cellular proliferation capacity
Stratford JP, Edwards CLA, Ghanshyam MJ, Malyshev D, Delise MA, Hayashi Y, Asally M
PNAS, 2019, 116(19): 9552-57
A reaction-diffusion model for simulating the oscillatory expansion of biofilms
Mikami T, Asally M, Kano T, Ishiguro A
Artificial Life Conference Proceeding, 2019, 31, 218-219
Decentralized Control Scheme for Swarm Robots with Self-Sacrifice
Kano T, Asally M, Ishiguro A
Artificial Life Conference Proceeding, 2018, 30, 544-545
Impact of spatial organization on a novel auxotrophic interaction among soil microbes
Jiang X, Zerfass C, Feng S, Eichmann R, Asally M, Schaefer P, Soyer OS
ISME journal, 2018, 12: 1443-56
Ion channels enable electrical communication within bacterial communities
Prindle A, Liu J*, Asally M*, Ly S, Garcia-Ojalvo J, Suel GM (*equal contributions)
Nature, 2015,  527: 59-63
Metabolic co-dependence gives rise to collective oscillations within biofilms
Liu J, Prindle A*, Humphries J*, Gabalda-Sagarra M*, Asally M*, Lee DD, Ly S, Garcia-Ojalvo J, Suel GM (*equal contributions)
Nature, 2015, 523: 550-554
Differential role for transcription factor Oct4 nucleocytoplasmic dynamics in somatic cell reprogramming and self-renewal of embryonic stem cells
Oka M, Moriyama T, Asally M, Kawakami K, Yoneda
Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2013, 288(21): 15085-97
Localized cell death focuses mechanical forces during 3D patterning in a biofilm
Asally M, Kittisopikul M, Rue P, Du Y, Hu Z, Cagatay T, Robinson AB, Lu H, Garcia-Ojalvo J, Suel GM
PNAS , 2012, 109(46):1889-96
Nuclear retention of importin-a coordinates cell fate through changes in gene expression
Yasuda Y, Miyamoto Y, Yamashiro T, Asally M, Masui A, Wong C, Lovel KL, Yoneda Y
EMBO Journal, 2012, 31(1): 83-94
Nup358, a nucleoporin, functions as a key determinant of the nuclear pore complex structure remodeling during skeletal myogenesis
Asally M, Yasuda Y, Oka M, Otsuka S, Yoshimura SH, Takeyasu K, Yoneda Y
FEBS Journal, 2011, 278(4): 610-21
The mobile FG nucleoporin Nup98 is a cofactor for Crm1-dependent protein export
Oka M, Asally M, Yasuda Y, Ogawa Y, Tachibana T, Yoneda Y
Molecular Biology of the Cell , 2011, 21: 1885-96
Two isoforms of Npap60 (Nup50) differentially regulate nuclear protein import
Ogawa Y, Miyamoto Y, Asally M, Oka M, Yasuda Y, Yoneda Y
Molecular Biology of the Cell , 2010, 21: 630-38
Triggering neural differentiation of ES cells by subtype switching of importin-alpha
Yasuhara N, Shibazaki N, Tanaka S, Nagai M, Kamikawa Y, Oe S, Asally M, Kamachi Y, Kondo H, Yoneda Y
Nature Cell Biology, 2006, 9(1): 72-79
Beta-catenin can act as a nuclear import receptor for its partner transcription factor, lymphocyte enhancer factor-1
Asally M, Yoneda Y
Experimental Cell Research, 2005, 308(2): 357-63

Funding

Our research is generously supported by