Michael B. Elowitz is a biologist and professor of Biology, Bioengineering, and Applied Physics at the California Institute of Technology. He is also a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2007, he received the Genius Grant, which is part of the MacArthur Fellows Program, for designing a synthetic gene control system called the Repressilator. This work helped begin the field of synthetic biology. He was the first to demonstrate how random changes, or "noise," in gene activity could be measured in living cells. This discovery showed that noise plays important roles in cells. His research on synthetic biology and noise forms two key areas of the field of Systems Biology. Since then, his laboratory has helped create synthetic biological circuits that perform various functions inside cells. His work has also uncovered principles behind how cells remember information, control their development, communicate with each other, and work together in groups.

Early life and education

Elowitz was born in Los Angeles, California, where he attended the Portola Highly Gifted Magnet School and the Hamilton Humanities Magnet High Schools. In 1992, he received his B.A. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1999, he completed his Ph.D. in physics at Princeton University.

As a graduate student under the guidance of Stanislas Leibler, he began designing synthetic genetic circuits [1]. During his graduate studies, he spent a year at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, where he engineered parts of the Repressilator. Upon returning to Princeton, Elowitz showed that the circuit could successfully generate dynamic oscillations in gene expression, causing individual cells to "blink" on and off, and demonstrating that new dynamic behaviors could be programmed in living cells.

Career

His laboratory studies how genetic circuits function in individual living cells using synthetic biology, time-lapse microscopy, and mathematical models. They focus on how cells use random events to create behaviors that would be difficult or impossible without them. Recently, the lab has started studying eukaryotic and mammalian cells in addition to bacteria.

Research

Elowitz's research aims to learn how to program new behaviors in living cells using a "build to understand" approach. His laboratory combines synthetic biology, quantitative systems biology, and single-cell analysis techniques. The lab has studied biological circuits that process and store information, allow cells to communicate, create changes in cell behavior, and provide medical benefits.

As a graduate student, Elowitz designed and built the repressilator, a synthetic genetic circuit made of three repressors arranged in a loop. This circuit, created using math models, produced regular changes in light from individual cells, showing that engineered gene networks can create predictable behaviors. This work, along with research on synthetic toggle switches, helped start the field of synthetic biology.

A major focus of Elowitz's work has been studying how random chemical events lead to both helpful and harmful changes in living systems. In 2002, his team used two fluorescent markers in the same cells to measure noise from internal and external sources. Later studies showed that these types of noise happen at different speeds and that patterns in random changes can reveal how molecules interact in synthetic and natural systems.

Elowitz's lab also showed how randomness can have useful roles. For example, they found that certain gene circuits create probabilistic, rather than fixed, changes in cell behavior, helping bacteria survive in uncertain conditions. In another study, they showed that randomness in bacterial development could help create new traits over time.

They extended this work to mammalian cells by showing that random changes in gene activity could influence how T cells develop. This and other studies proved that random interactions can guide important cell decisions.

Building on these findings, Elowitz's group discovered a new way genes are regulated, where proteins control genes through short bursts of activity instead of constant levels. In yeast, they found that a protein called Crz1 moves into the nucleus in repeated bursts, with the speed of these bursts encoding signals from the environment. They also showed that cells use the timing of these bursts to combine information from different signals. This type of regulation also happens in bacteria, showing it is a common feature in many organisms.

Moving to cell communication, Elowitz's team studied how signaling pathways work. They found that interactions between Notch proteins on the same cell can create different states or allow cells to send signals to themselves. They also showed that different signaling molecules can trigger different responses through the same receptor, proving that timing and patterns in signals can carry information.

They extended this to how cells form patterns in space. By rebuilding and changing signaling pathways, they found specific rules that help create precise patterns, such as those seen in the Sonic Hedgehog and BMP pathways.

Elowitz's lab also studied how cells use combinations of signals to encode information. They found that cells can use different combinations of signals to send messages, and different cell types can interpret these messages in unique ways. They later showed that similar rules apply to how proteins work together to control gene activity.

Elowitz and his team used synthetic biology to study and create systems that let cells remember information. They showed how cells can store and keep stable memory states using random processes.

A major challenge in biology is understanding the history of individual cells. With Long Cai and others, Elowitz's lab created MEMOIR, a system that records cell history in their DNA. This system can read this information from images, keeping track of how cells are arranged in space.

Working with Jay Shendure and Alex Schier, Elowitz helped create the Allen Discovery Center for Cell Lineage Tracing, which develops tools to record and study how cells change over time. They also developed methods to predict how cells will change based on their history.

Elowitz's lab is working to expand synthetic biology to the level of proteins and create systems for building complex multicellular structures. For example, they made protein circuits that can detect and respond to signals in mammalian cells, or act like neural networks inside cells. They also engineered proteins that help move RNA between cells, allowing safe tracking and delivery of genetic material.

The lab introduced "MultiFate," a synthetic system that lets cells exist in multiple stable states, helping control how cells develop. In related work, they created cells that can control their population size in a way that is resistant to changes, an important step for building synthetic multicellular systems.

A key goal of synthetic biology is to create more precise medical treatments. To improve gene therapy, Elowitz's lab developed synthetic miRNA circuits that make protein production less affected by uncontrollable changes in gene levels.

The lab has also created therapeutic circuits—engineered proteins delivered as mRNA in lipid nanoparticles—that can target and kill cancer cells. By linking the recognition of cancer cell traits to cell death, these circuits may help overcome issues like drug resistance in cancer treatments.

Awards

• IUBMB Jubilee Award (2025)
• Clarivate Citation Laureate (2023)
• Elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences (2022)
• Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics (2019)
• Elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) as an associate member (2018)
• Named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2016)
• Sackler Scholar at Tel Aviv University (2015–2016)
• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2015)
• Allen Distinguished Investigator (2014)
• Israel Pollak Distinguished Lecturer at Technion–Israel Institute of Technology (2014)
• HFSP Nakasone Award (2011)
• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) (2008)
• Named to Discover magazine's "Top 20 under 40" list (2008)
• Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) (2008–present)
• MacArthur Fellow (2007)
• Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering (2006)
• Searle Scholars Award (2004)
• Named to Technology Review magazine's TR100 list of top innovators (2004)
• Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface (2002–2007)

Peer-reviewed publications

• Li P, Markson JS, Wang S, Chen S, Vachharajan V, Elowitz MB, "Studying how morphogen gradients form shows how the Hedgehog pathway works," Science (2018).
• Bintu L, Yong J, Antebi YE, McCue K, Kazuki Y, Uno N, Oshimura M, Elowitz MB, "Observing how genes are controlled in individual cells," Science (2016).
• Lin Y, Sohn CH, Dalal CK, Cai L, Elowitz MB, "How genes are controlled by timing of signals," Nature (2015).
• Suel, G. M.; Kulkarni, R. P.; Dworkin, J.; Garcia-Ojalvo, J.; Elowitz, M. B. (2007). "How changes in noise affect cell development," Science. 315 (5819): 1716–1719.
• Süel, G. R. M.; Garcia-Ojalvo, J.; Liberman, L. M.; Elowitz, M. B. (2006). "A gene network that causes temporary changes in cell behavior," Nature. 440 (7083): 545–550.
• Sprinzak, D.; Elowitz, M. B. (2005). "Building genetic circuits in cells," Nature. 438 (7067): 443–448.
• Rosenfeld, N.; Young, J. W.; Alon, U.; Swain, P. S.; Elowitz, M. B. (2005). "How genes are controlled in individual cells," Science. 307 (5717): 1962–1965.
• Elowitz, M. B.; Levine, A. J.; Siggia, E. D.; Swain, P. S. (2002). "Random changes in gene activity in single cells," Science. 297 (5584): 1183–1186.
• Guet, C. A.; Elowitz, M. B.; Hsing, W.; Leibler, S. (2002). "Creating genetic networks by combining parts," Science. 296 (5572): 1466–1470.
• Elowitz, M. B.; Leibler, S. (2000). "A network that creates regular cycles in cells," Nature. 403 (6767): 335–338.
• Rosenfeld, N.; Elowitz, M. B.; Alon, U. (2002). "How negative feedback speeds up gene control," Journal of Molecular Biology. 323 (5): 785–793.
• Elowitz, M. B.; Surette, M. G.; Wolf, P. E.; Stock, J.; Leibler, S. (1997). "Changing green fluorescent protein to red using light," Current Biology. 7 (10): 809–812.
• Levine, J. H.; Fontes, M. E.; Dworkin, J.; Elowitz, M. B. (2012). "Pulsed feedback delays cell changes," PLOS Biology. 10 (1): e1001252.
• Locke, J. C. W.; Young, J. W.; Fontes, M.; Jimenez, M. J. H.; Elowitz, M. B. (2011). "Random pulses in bacterial stress response," Science. 334 (6054): 366–369.