Noireaux has worked at the interface of physics and biology since the PhD. The PhD was on the movement of the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes, used as a model of cell motility. A biomimetic system was built to understand actin based motility in living cells, the study included quantitative measurements and theoretical model. During the postdoc, Noireaux worked on in vitro gene expression, synthetic gene circuits and protocell model. This work is continued at the University of Minnesota in the physics department.
Outreach: 2 REU students summer 2006 and 2007; 1 RET teacher summer 2006; 3 UROP (undergraduate research opportunities program), 2007. Course development: new courses in biological physics, in collaboration with Professors Grosberg and Muller, two new courses 8000 level are now proposed to graduate students in the department of physics at the University of Minnesota.
Philip Ball, Artificial cells take shape. Bacterium-sized 'protein factories' are a step along the road to synthetic life., Nature
V. Noireaux and Albert Libchaber, A Vesicle Bioreactor as a Step Toward an Artificial Cell Assembly, PNAS 101, 17669-17674 [abstract]
V. Noireaux, R. Bar-Ziv, A. Libchaber, Principles of Cell-free Genetic Circuit Assembly, PNAS 100, 12672-12677 [abstract]
B. Dubertret, P. Skourides, D.J. Norris, V. Noireaux, A.H. Brivanlou, A. Libchaber, In Vivo Imaging of Quantum Dots Encapsulated in Phospholipids Micelles, Science 298, 1759-1762 [abstract]
J. Fradelizi, V. Noireaux, J. Plastino, B. Menichi, D. Louvard, C. Sykes, R.M. Golsteyn, E. Friederich, ActA and the Human Zyxin Harbour Arp2/3 Complex Independent Actin Polymerisation Activity, Nature Cell Biology 3, 699-707 [abstract]
V. Noireaux, R. M. Golsteyn, E. Friederich, J. Prost, C. Antony, D. Louvard, C. Sykes, Growing an Actin Gel on Spherical Surfaces, Biophy. J. 78, 1643-1654 [abstract]