Mary Dunlop, PhD
Professor
Boston University College of Engineering
Biomedical Engineering

PhD, California Institute of Technology
MS, California Institute of Technology
BS, Princeton University



Mary Dunlop is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University with additional appointments in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry and Bioinformatics. She graduated from Princeton University with a B.S.E. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a minor in Computer Science. She then received her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, where she studied synthetic biology with a focus on dynamics and feedback in gene regulation. As a postdoctoral scholar, she conducted research on biofuel production at the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute. Her lab engineers novel synthetic feedback control systems and also studies naturally occurring examples of feedback in gene regulation. In recognition of her outstanding research and service contributions, she has received many honors including a Department of Energy Early Career Award, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and the ACS Synthetic Biology Young Investigator Award.


Cell-to-cell heterogeneity and the emergence of antibiotic resistance 13
07/09/2025 - 06/30/2030 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases
2R01AI102922-11A1

Using optogenetics to characterize signal propagation and control within gene regulatory networks
09/01/2025 - 08/31/2028 (PI)
National Science Foundation
MCB-2533553

NRT-URoL: A Convergent Training Program on Biological Control
08/01/2023 - 07/31/2028 (Multi-PI)
PI: Mary Dunlop, PhD
National Science Foundation
DGE-2244366

Optogenetic control for metabolic engineering using protein-level regulation
04/15/2025 - 03/31/2028 (PI)
National Science Foundation
CBET-2422796

Optogenetic selection for dynamic phenotypes in bacteria
08/01/2023 - 07/31/2026 (PI)
National Science Foundation
MCB-2324909

Transitions: Deep learning models for microbial image analysis and time-series predictions
01/01/2022 - 12/31/2025 (PI)
National Science Foundation
MCB-2143289

Cell-to-cell heterogeneity and the emergence of antibiotic resistance
06/05/2019 - 05/31/2025 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases
3R01AI102922-010S1

Single-cell feedback, optogenetics, and deep learning to control gene expression in bacteria
08/15/2020 - 07/31/2024 (PI)
National Science Foundation
MCB-2032357

High-throughput chemical imaging for optimizing biofuel synthesis using synthetic biology
09/15/2018 - 09/14/2023 (Multi-PI)
PI: Mary Dunlop, PhD
Department of Energy
DE-SC0019387

Quantifying Clostridioides difficile single-cell growth dynamics using time-lapse microscopy
01/15/2021 - 06/30/2023 (Subcontract PI)
Trustees of Tufts College NIH NIAID
1R21AI153853-01A1

Showing 10 of 15 results. Show All Results


Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs
2025 Cell-to-cell heterogeneity and the emergence of antibiotic resistance 2R01AI102922-11A1
2023 Cell-to-cell heterogeneity and the emergence of antibiotic resistance 5R01AI102922-10
2023 Cell-to-cell heterogeneity and the emergence of antibiotic resistance 3R01AI102922-10S1
2023 Cell-to-cell heterogeneity and the emergence of antibiotic resistance 3R01AI102922-09S1
2022 Cell-to-cell heterogeneity and the emergence of antibiotic resistance 5R01AI102922-09
2021 Cell-to-cell heterogeneity and the emergence of antibiotic resistance 5R01AI102922-08 12
2020 Cell-to-cell heterogeneity and the emergence of antibiotic resistance 5R01AI102922-07 12
2019 Efflux pumps and the emergence of antibiotic resistance in single cells 5R21AI137843-02 2
2019 Cell-to-cell heterogeneity and the emergence of antibiotic resistance 2R01AI102922-06 12
2018 Efflux pumps and the emergence of antibiotic resistance in single cells 1R21AI137843-01 2
Showing 10 of 15 results. Show All Results

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Website       Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

  1. Huang H, Jafarbeglou F, Dunlop MJ. Single-cell characterization of bacterial optogenetic Cre recombinases. bioRxiv. 2025 Jun 07. PMID: 40501727; PMCID: PMC12157401; DOI: 10.1101/2025.06.06.658346;
     
  2. O'Connor OM, Dunlop MJ. Cell-TRACTR: A transformer-based model for end-to-end segmentation and tracking of cells. PLoS Comput Biol. 2025 May; 21(5):e1013071. PMID: 40408631; PMCID: PMC12101859; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013071;
     
  3. Ribis JW, Nieto C, DiBenedetto NV, Mehra A, Kuhn P, Dong Q, Nagawa I, El Meouche I, Aldridge BB, Dunlop MJ, Tamayo R, Singh A, Shen A. Unique growth and morphology properties of Clade 5 Clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single-cell time-lapse microscopy. PLoS Pathog. 2025 May; 21(5):e1013155. PMID: 40397889; PMCID: PMC12140426; DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1013155;
     
  4. Alnahhas RN, Andreani V, Dunlop MJ. Evaluating the predictive power of combined gene expression dynamics from single cells on antibiotic survival. mSystems. 2025 Jun 17; 10(6):e0158824.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40391890; PMCID: PMC12172483; DOI: 10.1128/msystems.01588-24;
     
  5. Ribis JW, Nieto C, DiBenedetto NV, Mehra A, Kuhn P, Dong Q, Nagawa I, Meouche IE, Aldridge BB, Dunlop MJ, Tamayo R, Singh A, Shen A. Unique growth and morphology properties of Clade 5 Clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single-cell time-lapse microscopy. bioRxiv. 2025 May 16. PMID: 40463200; PMCID: PMC12132525; DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.13.580212;
     
  6. Lin H, Seitz S, Tan Y, Lugagne JB, Wang L, Ding G, He H, Rauwolf TJ, Dunlop MJ, Connor JH, Porco JA, Tian L, Cheng JX. Label-free nanoscopy of cell metabolism by ultrasensitive reweighted visible stimulated Raman scattering. Nat Methods. 2025 May; 22(5):1040-1050.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39820753; PMCID: PMC12074879; DOI: 10.1038/s41592-024-02575-1;
     
  7. Blassick CM, Lugagne JB, Dunlop MJ. Dynamic heterogeneity in an E. coli stress response regulon mediates gene activation and antimicrobial peptide tolerance. bioRxiv. 2024 Dec 02. PMID: 39677761; PMCID: PMC11642793; DOI: 10.1101/2024.11.27.625634;
     
  8. Alnahhas RN, Andreani V, Dunlop MJ. Evaluating the predictive power of combined gene expression dynamics from single cells on antibiotic survival. bioRxiv. 2024 Nov 25.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39651301; PMCID: PMC11623535; DOI: 10.1101/2024.11.23.624989;
     
  9. Alnahhas RN, Dunlop MJ. Evaluation of Choudhary et al.: Single-cell gene expression dynamics in the E. coli oxidative stress response network. Cell Syst. 2024 Nov 20; 15(11):991-993.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39571531
     
  10. Jafarbeglou F, Dunlop MJ. Red Light Responsive Cre Recombinase for Bacterial Optogenetics. ACS Synth Biol. 2024 Dec 20; 13(12):3991-4001. PMID: 39558834
     
Showing 10 of 72 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 72 publications over 19 distinct years, with a maximum of 10 publications in 2023

YearPublications
19841
20051
20081
20102
20112
20122
20131
20142
20152
20164
20175
20186
20195
20206
20212
20226
202310
20248
20256

Note: X.com has changed/limited the ability to embed tweets directly in external sites and we are investigating ways to restore that functionality in BU Profiles. In the meantime we are displaying a link to your x.com profile in the Websites section above.

2022 National Science Foundation: Transitions Award
2020 College of Engineering: Teaching Excellence Award
2019 Biomedical Engineering: Professor of the Year
2017 ACS: Synthetic Biology Young Investigator
2015 University of Vermont, Graduate Student Senate: Nominee for Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award
2014 National Science Foundation : CAREER Award
2013 University of Vermont, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences: Outstanding Junior Faculty Award
2011 Department of Energy: Early Career Award
2008 California Institute of Technology: Dean’s Award for Community Service
2004 American Control Conference: Best Student Paper
2002-2006 Department of Energy: Computational Science Graduate Fellowship
Contact for Mentoring:

44 Cummington St
Boston MA 02118
Google Map


Dunlop's Networks
Click the "See All" links for more information and interactive visualizations
Concepts
_
Media Mentions
_
Co-Authors
_
Similar People
_
Same Department