University of California-San Diego · PhysicsHwa Lab
Terence Hwa · La Jolla, California
Research Focus
Dr. Terence Hwa's lab at UC San Diego focuses on understanding how bacteria like E. coli and other species respond to their environments by studying their physiology at a quantitative level. The lab uses advanced techniques to measure proteins, genes, and metabolites, allowing them to develop models that explain bacterial behavior and regulation. This research could lead to new ways to manage human pathogens and design effective probiotics.
bacterial physiologyquantitative biologymetabolomicsproteomicstranscriptomicspathogen responseinter-species comparisonsgene regulation
Research Aims
5AIM 01Expand research on bacterial physiology beyond E. coli to various bacterial species.
AIM 02Apply transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic techniques to understand bacterial responses.
AIM 03Develop quantitative models for predicting bacterial behavior under different conditions.
AIM 04Establish methods for comparing physiological data across different bacterial species.
AIM 05Investigate the potential of probiotics to outcompete harmful pathogens in the gut environment.
Skills the Lab Values
PCRcell culturemetabolomic analysisprotein quantificationgene expression analysisbioinformaticsdata modelingsystematic experimental designmultivariate statistical analysis
Output against the department
Publications260top 41% of dept.9th of 22
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations23ktop 18% of dept.4th of 22
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.