Roy Dar

For more information

• Dar Lab Website

Education

• Ph.D. Physics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2011)
• B.Sc. Physics and Mathematics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (2004)

Academic Positions

• Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Bioengineering, 2015-Present
• Affiliate Faculty, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2018-Present
• Affiliate Faculty, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, 2015-Present
• Affiliate Faculty, Cancer Center at Illinois, 2017-Present
• Affiliate Faculty, Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, 2015-Present
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Gladstone Institutes, University of California, San Francisco, 2011-2015

Research Interests

• Drug Screening
• Cellular Fate-Determination and State Transitions
• Viral and Genetic Circuitry
• Stochastic Gene Expression
• Single-Cell Biophysics
• Systems Biology

Research Topics

• Genomics

Selected Articles in Journals

• DW Austin, MS Allen, JM McCollum, RD Dar, JR Wilgus, GS Sayler, NF Samatova, CD Cox, and ML Simpson (2006) Gene network shaping of inherent noise spectra. Nature 439:608–11.
• LS Weinberger*, RD Dar*, and ML Simpson (2008) Transient mediated fate-determination in a transcriptional circuit of HIV. Nature Genetics 40:466–470. (* - equal contribution)
• RD Dar*, BS Razooky*, A Singh, TV Trimeloni, JM McCollum, CD Cox, ML Simpson, and LS Weinberger (2012) Transcriptional burst frequency and burst size are equally modulated across the human genome. Proc Na. Acad Sc. USA 109:17454–17459. (* - equal contribution)
• MW Teng*, C Bolovan-Fritts*, RD Dar, A Womack, T Shenk, ML Simpson, and LS Weinberger (2012) An endogenous accelerator for viral gene expression provides a fitness advantage. Cell 151:1569–1580. (* - equal contribution)
• RD Dar, NN Hosmane, MR Arkin, RF Siliciano, and LS Weinberger (2014) Screening for noise in gene expression identifies drug synergies. Science 44:1392–1396.
• K Bohn-Wippert, EN Tevonian, MR Megaridis, and RD Dar (2017) Similarity in viral and host promoters couples viral reactivation with host cell migration. Nature Communications 8:15006. doi:10.1038/ncomms15006
• RD Dar** and R Weiss (2018) Engineering noise in biological systems towards predictive stochastic design. APL Bioengineering. 2:020901. doi:10.1063/1.5025033. (**Corr. Author)
• MMK Hansen*, WY Wen*, E Ingerman*, BS Razooky, CE Thompson, RD Dar, CW Chin, ML Simpson, and LS Weinberger (2018) A Post-Transcriptional Feedback Mechanism for Noise Suppression and Fate Stabilization. Cell 173:1-13 (* - equal contribution)
• RD Kamm, R Bashir, N Arora, RD Dar, LG Griffith, ML Kemp, K Kinlaw, M Levin, AC Martin, TC McDevitt, RM Nerem, M Powers, TA. Saif, J Sharpe, S Takayama, S Takeuchi, R Weiss, K Ye, HG Yevick, and M Zaman (2018) The promise of multi-cellular engineered living systems. APL Bioengineering 2:040901. doi.org/10.1063/1.5038337
• K Bohn-Wippert*, EN Tevonian*, Y Lu, M-Y Huang, MR Megaridis, and RD Dar (2018) Cell size-based decision-making of a viral gene circuit. Cell Reports 25:3844-3857. doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2018.12.009 (* - equal contribution)
• Y Lu, K Bohn-Wippert, PJ Pazerunas, JM Moy, H Singh, and RD Dar (2021) Screening for gene expression fluctuations reveals latency promoting agents of HIV. Proc Na. Acad Sc. USA 118 (11) e2012191118

Honors

• NSF CAREER Award (2020)
• NIBIB Trailblazer Award for New and Early Stage Investigators, NIH (2018)
• Innovation Lab Award, The Jayne Koskinas Ted Giovanis Foundation (2018)
• Scialog Fellow, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation with Rescorp (2017)
• NIH Career Transition Award (K22), NIAID, NIH (2015)
• Gordon Research Conference Best Poster Award, Ventura, CA (2015)
• Postdoctoral Award for Exemplary Leadership, Gladstone Institutes, UCSF (2015)
• Postdoctoral Award for Scientific Excellence, Gladstone Institutes, UCSF (2014)
• Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA, F32), NIAID, NIH (2012)
• Paul H. Stelson Fellowship for Professional Promise, University of Tennessee (2011)
• Sigma Pi Sigma, National Physics Honors Society, University of Tennessee Chapter (2008-2011)

Teaching Honors

• Teaching Excellence Award, Illinois Student Government, UIUC (4/22/2018)

Research Honors

• The Jayne Koskinas Ted Giovanis Foundation "Innovation Lab Award" (7/24/2018)
• Rescorp and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation "Scialog Collaborative Innovation Award" (7/26/2017)

Recent Courses Taught

• BIOE 206 - Cellular Bioengineering
• BIOE 310 - Comp Tools Bio Data
• BIOE 487 - Stem Cell Bioengineering
• BIOE 497 DAR (BIOE 497 ROY) - Individual Study
• BIOE 598 GU (BIOE 598 RD) - Single-Cell Decision-Making
• ECE 397 RD - Individual Study in ECE