Jane Kondev
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
NAME
POSITION TITLE
Kondev, Jane
Professor of Physics
EDUCATION
INSTITUTION AND LOCATION
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia
DEGREE
(if applicable)
YEAR(s)
Ph.D
B.Sc.
1995
1990
FIELD OF STUDY
Physics
Physics
A. Personal statement
I was trained as a theoretical physicist and came to Brandeis as an assistant professor with a research
program that focused on condensed phases of matter. Since that time I have switched to studying biological
problems by establishing close collaborations with labs at Brandeis (Gelles, Haber and Goode) and Caltech
(Phillips). To make this transition possible I have co-authored a textbook with Phillips, Theriot and Garcia on
the “Physical Biology of the Cell”, which examines the potency of physical models in building quantitative
intuition about biological phenomena. Similarly, the goal of my research is to develop quantitative models of
biological structure and function that can be tested experimentally. The hope is that by establishing a dialogue
between quantitative theory and quantitative experiment a different view of living matter will emerge, one that
complements the view obtained using the more traditional approaches of biochemistry and genetics. Current
projects include the study of cell-to-cell variability in gene expression, homologous recombination in yeast,
synthetic genetic circuits, and formin assisted actin assembly.
B. Positions and Honors
Positions and Employment:
Chair, Department of Physics, September 2013 – present, Brandeis University.
Co-director, Interdepartmental Program in Quantitative Biology, September 2006–present, Brandeis University.
Professor, July 2008 – present. Department of Physics, Brandeis University.
Associate Professor, July 2005 – July 2008. Department of Physics, Brandeis University.
Assistant Professor, July 1999 – July 2005. Department of Physics, Brandeis University.
Lecturer, September 1997 – July 1999. Department of Physics, Princeton University.
Member, September 1997 – July 1999. School of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
Postdoctoral Associate, September 1995 – September 1997. Department of Physics, Brown University.
Academic Honors:
Professor of The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2014).
Society of Biology Book Award Winner: Undergraduate textbook, Physical Biology of the Cell (2013).
Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University (2007-2008).
Cottrell Scholar Award: “Theoretical studies of Dense Polymer Systems” (2002).
NSF CAREER Award: “Geometrical Approaches to Strongly Correlated Matter” (2000).
Princeton Excellence in Teaching Award (1998 and 1999)
Jane Kondev
C. Selected Publications
1. Harden TT, Wells CD, Friedman LJ, Landick R, Hochschild A, Kondev J, Gelles J. (2016) Bacterial
RNA polymerase can retain σ70 throughout transcription. PNAS 113(3):602-7.
2. Choubey S, Kondev J, Sanchez A. (2015) Deciphering Transcriptional Dynamics In Vivo by Counting
Nascent RNA Molecules. PLoS Com Bio. 11(11):e1004345.
3. Mohapatra L, Goode BL, Kondev J. (2015) Antenna Mechanism of Length Control of Actin Cables.
PLoS Comput Biol. 11(6):e1004160.
4. Paramanathan T, Reeves D, Friedman LJ, Kondev J, Gelles J. (2014) A general mechanism for
competitor-induced dissociation of molecular complexes. Nat Commun. 5:5207. PMC4301414
5. Avşaroğlu B, Bronk G, Gordon-Messer S, Ham J, Bressan DA, Haber JE, Kondev J. (2014) Effect of
chromosome tethering on nuclear organization in yeast. PLoS One. 9(7):e102474. PMC4096926
6. Garcia HG, Sanchez A, Boedicker JQ, Osborne M, Gelles J, Kondev J, Phillips R (2012) Operator
sequence alters gene expression independently of transcription factor occupancy in bacteria. Cell
Reports, 2(1):150-61. PMC3616187
7. Sanchez A, Garcia HG, Jones D, Phillips R, Kondev J (2011) Effect of Promoter Architecture on the
Cell-to-Cell Variability in Gene Expression. PLoS Comput Biol 7(3): e1001100 PMC3048382
8. Wiggins PA, Cheveralls KC, Martin JS, Lintner R, and Kondev J (2010) Strong intranucleoid
interactions organize the Escherichia coli chromosome into a nucleoid filament. PNAS, 107, 4991.
PMC2841910
9. Sanchez A and Kondev J (2008) Transcriptional control of noise in gene expression. PNAS, 105, 5081.
PMC2278180
10. Purohit, P., Kondev, J. and Phillips, R. (2003) Mechanics of DNA packaging in bacteriophage. PNAS,
100, 3173. PMC404299
Book:
Physical Biology of the Cell, 2nd Edition (with R. Phillips, J. Theriot and H. Garcia) Garland Press, 2012.
D. Recent students
1. Alvaro Sanchez, Ph.D. 2010. Thesis title: “Physical mechanisms of transcriptional regulation”.
Currently Rowland Junior Fellow at Harvard. Starting faculty position at Yale in Fall 2015.
2. Suzannah Gordon-Messer, Ph.D. 2010. Thesis title: ““The organization and dynamics of a yeast
chromosome arm”. Currently working for Boston public schools on science curriculum development.
3. Baris Avsaroglu, PhD. 2014. Thesis title: “Functional chromosome organization in yeast”.
Currently postdoc at Berkeley.
4. Sandeep Choubey, PhD 2014. Thesis title: “Biophysical models of transcription in cells”.
Currently postdoc at Harvard.
5. Lishibanya Mohapatra, PhD 2015. Thesis title: “Mechanisms of length control of cytoskeleton
structures”. Currently postdoc at Yale.
E. Collaborators
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Prof. Rob Phillips, Caltech
Prof. Alvaro Sanchez, Yale
Prof. Julie Theriot, Stanford
Prof. Hernan Garcia, Berkeley
Prof. Bruce Goode, Brandeis
Prof. Jeff Gelles, Brandeis
Prof. Jim Haber, Brandeis
Prof. Ahmed Khalil, Boston University