Diego Krapf (born November 21, 1973) is an Argentine-Israeli-American physicist known for his work on

anomalous diffusion Anomalous diffusion is a diffusion process with a non-linear relationship between the mean squared displacement (MSD), \langle r^(\tau )\rangle , and time. This behavior is in stark contrast to Brownian motion, the typical diffusion process descri ...

and

ergodicity In mathematics, ergodicity expresses the idea that a point of a moving system, either a dynamical system or a stochastic process, will eventually visit all parts of the space that the system moves in, in a uniform and random sense. This implies th ...

breaking. He currently is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

Early life and education

Diego Krapf was born on November 21, 1973, to Martha Elbert and Luis Krapf. He spent his childhood growing up in

Rosario, Argentina Rosario () is the largest city in the central Argentine province of Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous city in the country, and is also the most po ...

, and he attended the Instituto Politécnico Superior. In 1992, after finishing high school, Krapf immigrated to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, where he spent half a year in Kibbutz

Gan Shmuel Gan Shmuel ( he, גַּן שְׁמוּאֵל, ''lit.'' Shmuel's Garden) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in Haifa District, east of Hadera, it falls under the jurisdiction of Menashe Regional Council. In it had a population of . The kibbu ...

and then moved to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. He enrolled in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. Krapf holds a BSc in

(1997), a MSc in

applied physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered to be a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination ...

(2000) and a PhD in

(2004) from the

. After finishing his PhD, he completed a postdoc at the

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

(2007), doing research in nanoelectrode fabrication and single molecule experiments using

nanopore A nanopore is a pore of nanometer size. It may, for example, be created by a pore-forming protein or as a hole in synthetic materials such as silicon or graphene. When a nanopore is present in an electrically insulating membrane, it can be used a ...

s under the supervision of

Cees Dekker Cornelis "Cees" Dekker (born 7 April 1959 in Haren, Groningen) is a Dutch physicist, and Distinguished University Professor at the Technical University of Delft. He is known for his research on carbon nanotubes, single-molecule biophysics, and na ...

and Serge Lemay.

Research

Since 2007, Krapf is a faculty member in

, where he currently heads a Biophysics lab that focuses on

and cellular architecture using a combination of analytical and experimental tools including

single particle tracking Single-particle tracking (SPT) is the observation of the motion of individual particles within a medium. The coordinates time series, which can be either in two dimensions (''x'', ''y'') or in three dimensions (''x'', ''y'', ''z''), is referred to ...

and super-resolution imaging. In 2011, Krapf and his team at

showed that the motion of

membrane protein Membrane proteins are common proteins that are part of, or interact with, biological membranes. Membrane proteins fall into several broad categories depending on their location. Integral membrane proteins are a permanent part of a cell membrane ...

s on the surface of mammalian cells display

with a non-ergodic underlying physical mechanism. These results represented a breakthrough in the understanding of membrane dynamics because they provide a completely new way of interpreting the motion of membrane proteins. In 2017, the Krapf lab discovered that due to complex

branching process In probability theory, a branching process is a type of mathematical object known as a stochastic process, which consists of collections of random variables. The random variables of a stochastic process are indexed by the natural numbers. The origi ...

es the

actin Actin is a family of globular multi-functional proteins that form microfilaments in the cytoskeleton, and the thin filaments in muscle fibrils. It is found in essentially all eukaryotic cells, where it may be present at a concentration of over ...

cytoskeleton adjacent to the

plasma membrane The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane (PM) or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of all cells from the outside environment (t ...

of mammalian cells form an intricate fractal structure. In 2018, an international team led by Krapf involving researchers from the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medica ...

and the

Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental The Experimental Medicine and Biology Institute ( es, Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, IByME) is a research and development centre affiliated to the University of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. History The institute was ...

(Argentina) revealed the organization of the

-based

cytoskeleton The cytoskeleton is a complex, dynamic network of interlinking protein filaments present in the cytoplasm of all cells, including those of bacteria and archaea. In eukaryotes, it extends from the cell nucleus to the cell membrane and is compos ...

in the

sperm Sperm is the male reproductive cell, or gamete, in anisogamous forms of sexual reproduction (forms in which there is a larger, female reproductive cell and a smaller, male one). Animals produce motile sperm with a tail known as a flagellum, whi ...

flagellum A flagellum (; ) is a hairlike appendage that protrudes from certain plant and animal sperm cells, and from a wide range of microorganisms to provide motility. Many protists with flagella are termed as flagellates. A microorganism may have f ...

using three-dimensional super-resolution imaging. It was discovered that in the midpiece of

murine The Old World rats and mice, part of the subfamily Murinae in the family Muridae, comprise at least 519 species. Members of this subfamily are called murines. In terms of species richness, this subfamily is larger than all mammal families excep ...

sperm, the actin cytoskeleton forms a double-

helix A helix () is a shape like a corkscrew or spiral staircase. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is formed as two intertwined helices, ...

that follows the

mitochondrial A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is use ...

sheath, a type of filamentous actin structure that had not been previously observed.

Awards

* 2022 Art Corey Award for Outstanding International Contributions * 2020 - 2021 George T. Abell Outstanding Research Faculty Award * 2020 Dr. Bernardo Houssay Award of the Argentine Society of Biology * 2019 César Milstein Award by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, Argentina *2018 Interdisciplinary Scholarship Award, Colorado State University * 2018 George T. Abell Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Award * 2000 Rector Scholarship,

* 1999 Levy Eshkol Award, Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel

External links

Krapf Lab at Colorado State University
*
Scientific American - Novel TB DetectorOSA: Scientists Take Step Toward Simple and Portable Tuberculosis Tests for Developing World

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krapf, Diego Living people 1973 births Argentine physicists Israeli physicists Jewish physicists Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Colorado State University faculty People from Rosario, Santa Fe