The idea
One language for many systems.
A spinning governor, a set of state equations, an aircraft, a living cell. Control theory treats them with the same mathematics: what a system does, how it responds to input, and how feedback keeps it stable. That throughline runs through everything we work on.
Research
We study how systems evolve, stabilize, and can be steered, whether they are biological, engineered, or computational. Our interests span the mathematics of dynamical systems and the biology of cells, and the places where the two meet.
Systems & synthetic biology
Modeling, analysis, and principled design of biomolecular and cellular networks.
Modeling in cancer & immunology
Quantitative models of tumor dynamics and the immune response to them.
Feedback control & dynamical systems
Stability, robustness, and the structure of nonlinear and monotone systems.
Complexity & theory of computing
Limits of computation and the complexity of analysis and design.
Drug combinations & resistance
Dynamics of treatment, adaptation, and the emergence of resistance.
Learning in dynamical settings
How adaptation and inference interact with the systems being controlled.
The Group
Led by Eduardo D. Sontag, with appointments in Bioengineering and in Electrical & Computer Engineering at Northeastern University.
The lab brings together control theory, applied mathematics, and quantitative biology. We are always interested in hearing from prospective students and collaborators who share these interests.
Publications
Papers, preprints, and technical reports from the group, spanning control theory, systems biology, and the mathematics of dynamical systems.