Stephen Quake

Professor of #Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering @ETH_en
Prolific inventor at the nexus of #biology, #physics, and #tech

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Figure: Dupire et al., Cell (2026)

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Which of these 15 AI challenges for cell biology is most urgent? Hilbert’s 23 problems steered math for a century. Our @CellCellPress paper, led by Andrea Califano, proposes 15 for biology, each with a real-world test of AI predictions. https://t.co/j9S8ksH0zc

[Prisca Liberali @priscaliberali]

We’re hiring at @ETH_BSSE in Basel! 📣
We are looking for a Head of our new Research Data Management Facility to help build the facility from the ground up and shape how we manage and connect complex research data across imaging, omics, modelling and AI.
https://t.co/92CtEbS5BP

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Our Tabula Sapiens 2.0 is online at @CellCellPress! We doubled our dataset to >1.1M cells across 28 tissues, mapped expression of human transcription factors, and analyzed cellular senescence programs. The atlas is open access. Read the paper here: https://t.co/mwc44xhA9a

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Our Universal Cell Embedding model, trained on a 36-million-cell dataset from various species and tissues, allows the study of organisms well beyond those in the training set: https://t.co/jnV37uXW23
Source: Rosen et al., Nature, 2026

[Imperial Bioengineering @ImperialBioeng]

Today: Professor @StephenQuake lecture

Join us this evening for Professor Stephen Quake's special lecture on medical innovations from the genome revolution: liquid biopsies.

🗓️ Tonight🕕 18.15–19.30 📍 South Kensington Campus

Find out more: https://t.co/ZGifv4OyHv

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Excited to share our new paper in @PNASNews. We found that uniform stimuli can trigger highly structured, non-uniform inflammatory responses in tissue and demonstrated that epithelial cells use secondary signaling to orchestrate these spatial patterns. https://t.co/bqtIXkrEZa

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

I attended #AGCES2026 in Vegas last month. The 7 to 11-year delay for an endometriosis diagnosis is a systemic failure we should be able to solve with better measurement.
https://t.co/W0ORfDUA8J

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Aging isn't just a dimmer switch; it’s a logistics failure. In @NatureAging, Doug Henze, Tony Wyss-Coray, and I show how mRNA "gets stuck" in aging microglia, causing degradation of their spatial context: https://t.co/HFv4MNDiBA

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

How do cells balance competing tasks? In @PNASNews, George Crowley, Uri Alon, and I apply Pareto optimality to the Tabula Sapiens atlas to reveal the geometric "archetypes" of human cell type diversity: https://t.co/JDZbCaB9ao

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

I enjoyed speaking at #PMWC2026 on the transition from data to knowledge. We’re using foundation models like UCE and Transcriptformer to move beyond the "parts list" toward true clinical digital twins. As Sydney Brenner said: “Don't confuse data with knowledge.”

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

One of the things I’m proud of from my time at CZI was launching a physician-scientist training program. A new paper in The Journal of Pediatrics by the program leaders shows how cohort-based training can build skills, confidence, and scientific identity: https://t.co/KkGvYB6e9J

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Honored to have given the Ahlquist Keynote at @MayoClinic and to highlight David Ahlquist’s pioneering work on universal cancer screening. Fig. 2 from his paper beautifully shows why aggregating prevalence changes the screening calculus.
(Ahlquist, Precision Oncology, 2018)

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

I spoke at the @takeda_sci Symposium on “Organoid 4D: Development, Disease, Diversity, and Discovery.” Excellent discussions on organoid systems, tissue self-organization, and their growing role in modeling development and disease.
#Organoids #StemCells
Photos by Tsuyoshi Maekawa

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

I spoke with @ZMEScience at #FallingWalls about bringing precision measurement into biology – from microfluidics and non-invasive prenatal testing to cell atlases and virtual cells. Read or listen to the interview: https://t.co/fLlyAqTvpQ

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Caught the @bruce_munro's immersive light installations at Sensorio in Paso Robles recently – a beautiful reminder of how art, technology, and landscape can create something truly inspiring.

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Great visit to @ucsdbe, the Bioengineering department at @UCSD. Inspiring discussions and a pleasure to meet the students and faculty under the watchful eye of Do Ho Suh's Fallen Star.

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Photo credit: © Falling Walls Foundation

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Spoke at #FallingWalls on “Precision Health: Advancing Medicine and Care With AI.” The genome isn’t a blueprint—we need multimodal, human-first data and solid pre-analytics so AI can better guide care. Watch: https://t.co/j5axv7avut

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Photo credit: © Falling Walls Foundation

[Stephen Quake @StephenQuake]

Thanks to @ChristineCustis (@the_IAS) for a thoughtful Falling Walls dialogue on AI and society. We discussed AI for the Human Cell Atlas, automating cell-type annotation, and responsible use. Grateful to the @KavliFoundation & the Rita Allen Foundation.