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Prof. Jeff Gore

Professor of Physics

Primary DLC

Department of Physics

MIT Room: 4-332H
(617) 715-4251
https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/jeff-gore/

Areas of Interest and Expertise

Biophysics
Uses Microbial Model Systems to Test Theories in Evolutionary Biology
Evolution of Antibacterial Resistance
Biofilms

Research Summary

Professor Gore uses microbes such as yeast and bacteria to experimentally probe fundamental theories in evolutionary dynamics, systems biology, and quantitative ecology.

As a Pappalardo Fellow working together with Alexander van Oudenaarden, Jeff used sucrose metabolism in yeast as a model system to study the evolution of cooperation. The conditions required for the initiation and maintenance of cooperative behaviors is a classic problem in evolutionary biology. How can cooperators survive when they can be taken advantage of by "cheaters"? In the case of sucrose metabolism, Jeff found that cooperators can survive even in the presence of cheaters because the cooperators capture a small fraction (~1%) of the sugar they create before it is shared, thus making the interaction what game theorists call a snowdrift game.

Recent Work

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