Laboratory of Integrative Microbiology at University of North Texas

Research Interests

We study how the abundances and activities of cellular components like DNA, mRNA, ribosomes, and protein are intrinsically related to one another, and how these relations govern emergent behavior like cell growth, survival, and response to environmental changes.

Topics we are currently interested in:
a. coordination between transcription-translation fluxes
b. protein homeostasis in starvation
c. resource allocation strategies during cellular response
d. kinetics of ppGpp signaling

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Highlighted Publications

†equal contribution *corresponding authors

Gabriel Manzanarez†, Rohan Balakrishnan†, Harish Kannan†, Miriam Abele, Hiroyuki Okano, Fukang She, Zhongge Zhang, Chenhao Wu, Lance Freiman, Christina Ludwig*, Matteo Mori* and Terence Hwa*. Global proteolysis during starvation governs proteome remodeling and a survival–regrowth trade-off in bacteria. Proc Natl Acad Sci (2026).

Balakrishnan, R†., Mori, M†., Segota, I., Zhang, Z., Okano, H., Aebersold, R., Ludwig, C., Hwa, T. Principles of gene regulation quantitatively connect  DNA to RNA and proteins in bacteria. Science (2022)

Wu, C†., Balakrishnan, R†., Braniff, N., Mori, M., Manzanarez, G., Zhang, Z., Hwa, T. Cellular perception of growth rate and the mechanistic origin of bacterial growth laws. Proc Natl Acad Sci (2022).

Balakrishnan, R*., de Silva, RT., Hwa, T., Cremer, J*. Suboptimal proteome allocation during changing environments constrains bacterial response and growth recovery. Mol Syst Biol (2021).

Updates

Our paper on stationary phase protein degradation is published - October 15, 2026

Rohan gives an invited talk at auburn - September 24, 2026

Nandini shukla gives a talk at phages, madison, wi - August 4, 2026

Rohan presents an invited talk at the ohio state university - November 5, 2025

We join the BioDiscovery Institute - December 9, 2024

Lab opens - August 16, 2024