Mustafa A. Mir

Mustafa A. Mir, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, affiliated with The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). He leads the Mir Lab focused on quantifying and manipulating the dynamics of nuclear organization and gene expression during development and disease.

• Research Focus: Integrates advanced light microscopy with computational analysis, biophysical modeling, optogenetics, gene editing, and genomics to study gene expression regulation across spatiotemporal scales.
• Technological Expertise: Pioneered Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI) applications for label-free blood screening, developed Spatial Light Interference Microscopy (SLIM), and implemented compressed sensing algorithms for enhanced 3D fluorescence imaging.
• Key Discoveries: Demonstrated that transcription factor hubs drive gene activation through transient interactions rather than stabilized binding, revealed dynamic multifactor hubs in Drosophila embryos, and characterized phase separation mechanisms in heterochromatin formation.

The lab's work bridges molecular-scale imaging (e.g., single-molecule tracking of transcription factors) with organismal-scale dynamics (e.g., mitotic chromatin imaging in live embryos). Current projects investigate how disordered protein interactions regulate nuclear organization and transcriptional kinetics.