Publications

Peter’s Google Scholar profile

2026

Adam Krueger , Bikash Bogati, David S Weiss, Peter J Yunker “ Rapid Bacterial Identification and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing through Interferometry-based Surface Topography Measurement ” bioRxiv

Guanlin Li, Gabi Steinbach, Peter Yunker, Yao Yao, Joshua S Weitz “ Vibrio cholerae Phase separation and coexistence in spatial coordination games between microbes ” Physical Review E

2025

Anna Potapova, Rino Oguchi, Steffi Jimmy, Christopher R Evans, Kaitlin D Yarrington, James B Winans, Sofia Piepoli, Ethan A Older, Olivia F Schakel, Miles T Wetherington, William Garvey, Kyle A Floyd, Evgeny Vinogradov, Peter J Yunker, Laura M Sanchez, Carey D Nadell, Dominique H Limoli, Lars EP Dietrich, Holger Sondermann, Fitnat H Yildiz “ Vibrio cholerae biofilm matrix assembly and growth are shaped by a glutamate-specific TAXI/TRAP protein ” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Miles T Wetherington, Raymond Copeland, Christopher Zhang, Brian K Hammer, Peter J Yunker “Higher levels of antibiotic resistance are less competitive: the hidden ecological cost of no-metabolic cost resistance” bioRxiv

Miles Wetherington, Peter J Yunker “Microbial population structure: Forced proximity is shaped by capillary interactions” Current Biology

Aawaz R Pokhrel, Raymond Copeland, Maryam Hejri, Tom ER Belpaire, Gabi Steinbach, Siu Lung Ng, Brian K Hammer, Peter J Yunker “Cell-substrate friction controls biofilm development” bioRxiv

Raymond Copeland, Peter J Yunker “Biofilm vertical growth dynamics are captured by an active fluid framework” Physical Biology

Nishant Narayanasamy †, Emma Bingham †, Tanner Fadero, G Ozan Bozdag, William C Ratcliff, Peter Yunker, Shashi Thutupalli “Metabolically driven flows enable exponential growth in macroscopic multicellular yeast” Science Advances †Denotes co-first authors

Whitney Wong, Pablo Bravo, Peter J Yunker, William C Ratcliff, Anthony J Burnetti “Oxygen-binding proteins aid oxygen diffusion to enhance fitness of a yeast model of multicellularity” PLoS biology

2024

Emma P Bingham, Peter J Yunker “Evolution of cell differentiation: Maintenance emerges from speedy models and simple rules” Current Biology

Aawaz R Pokhrel, Gabi Steinbach, Adam Krueger, Thomas C Day, Julianne Tijani, Pablo Bravo, Siu Lung Ng, Brian K Hammer, Peter J Yunker “The biophysical basis of bacterial colony growth” Nature physics

Pablo Bravo, Peter J Yunker “Fluctuations and freezing of biofilm-air interfaces” bioRxiv

Rozenn M Pineau, Eric Libby, David Demory, Dung T Lac, Thomas C Day, Pablo Bravo, Peter J Yunker, Joshua S Weitz, G Ozan Bozdag, William C Ratcliff . “Emergence and maintenance of stable coexistence during a long-term multicellular evolution experiment” Nature ecology & evolution

Raymond Copeland, Christopher Zhang, Brian K Hammer, Peter J Yunker.
“Spatial constraints and stochastic seeding subvert microbial arms race” PLOS Computational Biology

Thomas C. Day, S. Alireza Zamani-Dahaj, G. Ozan Bozdag, Anthony J. Burnetti, Emma P. Bingham, Peter L. Conlin, William C. Ratcliff, and Peter J. Yunker. “ Morphological Entanglement in Living Systems ” Physical Review X 14: 011008

2023

G. Ozan Bozdag, Seyed Alireza Zamani-Dahaj, Thomas C. Day, Penelope C. Kahn, Anthony J. Burnetti, Dung T. Lac, Kai Tong, Peter L. Conlin, Aishwarya H. Balwani, Eva L. Dyer, Peter J. Yunker*, and William C. Ratcliff*. “De novo evolution of macroscopic multicellularity” Nature (2023) *Denotes co- corresponding authors

Pablo Bravo, Siu Lung Ng, Kathryn A. MacGillivray, Brian K. Hammer, and Peter J. Yunker. “Vertical growth dynamics of biofilms.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(11). (2023).

2022

Siu Lung Ng, Sophia Kammann, Gabi Steinbach, Tobias Hoffmann, Peter J. Yunker, and Brian K. Hammer. “Evolution of a cis-acting SNP that controls Type VI Secretion in Vibrio cholerae.” Mbio 13, no. 3 (2022): e00422-22.

Xujun Zhang, Shane Jacobeen, Qiang Zhang, Brian Khau, Peter Yunker, H. Jerry Qi, Saad Bhamla, and Paul S. Russo. “Reshaping sub-millimetre bubbles from spheres to tori.” Soft matter 18, no. 25 (2022): 4660-4666.

Thomas C. Day, Pedro Márquez-Zacarías, Pablo Bravo, Aawaz R. Pokhrel, Kathryn A. MacGillivray, William C. Ratcliff, and Peter J. Yunker. “Varied solutions to multicellularity: The biophysical and evolutionary consequences of diverse intercellular bonds.” Biophysics reviews 3, no. 2 (2022): 021305.

Thomas C. Day, Stephanie S. Höhn, Seyed A. Zamani-Dahaj, David Yanni, Anthony Burnetti, Jennifer Pentz, Aurelia R. Honerkamp-Smith, William C. Ratcliff, Raymond E. Goldstein, and Peter J. Yunker “Cellular organization in lab-evolved and extant multicellular species obeys a maximum entropy law.” Elife 11 (2022): e72707.

2021

Marguerite Matherne, Caroline Dowell-Esquivel, Oliver Howington, Olivia Lenaghan, Gabi Steinbach, Peter J. Yunker, and David L. Hu. “Biomechanics of pollen pellet removal by the honey bee.” Journal of the Royal Society Interface 18, no. 181 (2021): 20210549.

Cristian V. Crisan, Harshini Chandrashekar, Catherine Everly, Gabi Steinbach, Shannon E. Hill, Peter J. Yunker, Raquel R. Lieberman, and Brian K. Hammer. “A new contact killing toxin permeabilizes cells and belongs to a broadly distributed protein family.” Msphere 6, no. 4 (2021): e00318-21.

Cristian V. Crisan, Holly L. Nichols, Sophia Wiesenfeld, Gabi Steinbach, Peter J. Yunker, Brian K. Hammer, “Glucose confers protection to Escherichia coli against contact killing by Vibrio cholerae.” Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 2935 (2021).

2020

Gabi Steinbach, Cristian Crisan, Siu Lung Ng, Brian K. Hammer and Peter J. Yunker, “Accumulation of dead cells from contact killing facilitates coexistence in bacterial biofilms.” Journal of the Royal Society Interface Volume 17, Issue 173 (2020).

Jennifer T. Pentz, Pedro Márquez-Zacarías, G. Ozan Bozdag, Anthony Burnetti, Peter J. Yunker, Eric Libby, and William C. Ratcliff. “Ecological advantages and evolutionary limitations of aggregative multicellular development.” Current Biology 30, no. 21 (2020): 4155-4164.

David Yanni, Shane Jacobeen, Pedro Márquez-Zacarías, Joshua Weitz, William C. Ratcliff, and Peter J. Yunker, “Topological constraints in early multicellularity favor reproductive division of labor.” eLife, 9, e54348 (2020).

2019

Jordan Gulli, Peter J. Yunker, Frank Rosenzweig, “Matrices (re)loaded: Durability, viability and fermentative capacity of yeast encapsulated in beads of different composition during long-term fed-batch culture.” Biotechnology Progress, (2019).

Cristian V. Crisan, Aroon T. Chande, Kenneth Williams, Vishnu Raghuram, Lavanya Rishishwar, Gabi Steinbach, Samit S. Watve, Peter Yunker, I. King Jordan, Brian K. Hammer, “Analysis of Vibrio cholerae genomes identifies new Type VI Secretion System gene clusters.” Genome Biology, (2019).

Olga Shishkov, Joshua Trebuchon, Peter Yunker, Scott Franklin, David L Hu, “Black soldier fly larvae rearrange under compression.” Integrative and Comparative Biology, icz133, (2019).

Skanda Vivek, David Yanni, Peter J. Yunker*, and Jesse L. Silverberg*, “Cyberphysical risks of hacked internet-connected vehicles.” Phys. Rev. E 100, 012316 (2019). *Denotes co-corresponding authors

David Yanni, Pedro Márquez-Zacarías, Peter J. Yunker*, and William C. Ratcliff*, “Drivers of Spatial Structure in Social Microbial Communities.” Current Biology, 29(11), R545-R550 (2019). *Denotes co-corresponding authors

Jonathan A. Michel and Peter J. Yunker. “Structural hierarchy confers error tolerance in biological materials.” PNAS 116 (8) 2875-2880 (2019). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1813801116

2018

T.J. Lee, C.F. Lewallen, D.J. Bumbarger, Peter J. Yunker, C.R. Reid, and C.R. Forest, “Transport and trapping of nanosheets via hydrodynamic forces and curvature-induced capillary quadrupolar interactions.” Journal of Colloid and Interface Science (2018).

Shane Jacobeen, Elyes C. Graba, Colin G. Brandys, Thomas C. Day, William C. Ratcliff, and Peter J. Yunker, Geometry, packing, and evolutionary paths to increased multicellular size. Physical Review E 97, 050401(R) (2018).

Arben Kalziqi, David Yanni, Jacob Thomas, Siu Lung Ng, Skanda Vivek, Brian Hammer, Peter J. Yunker, “Immotile active matter: activity from death and reproduction.” Physical Review Letters (2018). 

2017

Shane Jacobeen, Jennifer T. Pentz, Elyes Graba, Colin Brandys, William C. Ratcliff, Peter J. Yunker, Origin of multicellularity: evolution of increased size via reduced cellular volume fraction. Nature Physics (2017).

• Also see the News & Views article by Vernita Gordon

Luke McNally, Eryn Bernardy, Jacob Thomas, Arben Kalziqi, Jennifer Pentz, Sam P. Brown, Brian Hammer, Peter J. Yunker* & William Ratcliff*, Killing by Type VI secretion drives genetic phase separation and correlates with increased cooperation, Nature Communications, (2017). *Denotes co- corresponding authors

2016

Dominic M. Robe, Stefan Boettcher, Paolo Sibani and Peter Yunker, Record dynamics: Direct experimental evidence from jammed colloids. EPL, 116 3 (2016) .

Cornelia Rosu, Shane Jacobeen, Katherine Park, Elsa Reichmanis, Peter Yunker, and Paul S. Russo, Domed Silica Microcylinders Coated with Oleophilic Polypeptides and Their Behavior in Lyotropic Cholesteric Liquid Crystals of the Same Polypeptide. Langmuir, Article ASAP, (2016).

Peter’s work pre-Georgia Tech

Peter J Yunker, Haruichi Asahara, Kuo-Chan Hung, Corey Landry, Laura R Arriaga, Ilke Akartuna, John Heyman, Shaorong Chong, David A Weitz, One-pot system for synthesis, assembly, and display of functional single-span membrane proteins on oil–water interfaces. PNAS, 113:3, 608-613, (2016).

Tim Still, Peter J Yunker, Kasey Hanson, Zoey S Davidson, Matthew A Lohr, Kevin B Aptowicz, AG Yodh, Temperature‐Sensitive Hydrogel‐Particle Films from Evaporating Drops. Advanced Materials Interfaces, 2:16 (2015).

Chris Edwards, Amir Arbabi, Basanta Bhaduri, Xiaozhen Wang, Raman Ganti, Peter J Yunker, Arjun G Yodh, Gabriel Popescu, Lynford L Goddard, Measuring the Nonuniform Evaporation Dynamics of Sprayed Sessile Microdroplets with Quantitative Phase Imaging. Langmuir, 31:40, 11020:11032, (2015).

Peter J. Yunker, K. Chen, T. Still, M.A. Lohr, M. Gratale, and A.G. Yodh, Physics in ordered and disordered colloidal matter with poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) microgel particles. Reports on Progress in Physics, (2014).

Still, T., Goodrich. C.P., Chen, K., Yunker, P.J., Schoenholz, S., Liu, A.J., and Yodh, A.G., Phonon dispersion and elastic moduli of two-dimensional disordered colloidal packings of soft particles with frictional interactions. Physical Review E 89, 012301 (2014).

Edwards, C., Zhou, R.J., Hwang, S.W., McKeown, S.J., Wang, K.Y., Bhaduri, B, Ganti, R., Yunker, P.J., Yodh, A.G., Rogers, J.A., Goddard, L.L., and Popescu, G., Diffraction phase microscopy: monitoring nanoscale dynamics in materials science.Applied Optics 53, (2014).

P. J. Yunker, D. Durian, and A.G. Yodh, Coffee rings and coffee disks: Physics on the edge. Physics Today 66, 8 (2013).

P. J. Yunker, M.A. Lohr, T. Still, A. Borodin, D.J. Durian, and A.G. Yodh, Comment on “Effects of particle shape on growth dynamics at edges of evaporating drops of colloidal suspensions” Reply. Physical Review Letters 111, 209602 (2013).

P. J. Yunker, M.A. Lohr, T. Still, A. Borodin, D.J. Durian, and A.G. Yodh, The effect of colloid shape on surface growth dynamics in evaporating drops. Physical Review Letters 110, 035501 (2013).

P. J. Yunker, Z.X. Zhang, M. Gratale, K. Chen, and A.G. Yodh, Relationship between neighbor number and vibrational spectra in disordered colloidal clusters with attractive interactions. Journal of Chemical Physics 138, 12A525 (2013).

P. J. Yunker, T. Still, A.G. Yodh, Colloidal shape effects in evaporating drops. Proceedings of the International School of Physics “Enrico Fermi” CourseCLXXXIV “Physics of Complex Colloids,” (2013).

M.D. Gratale, P.J. Yunker, K. Chen, T. Still, K.B. Aptowicz, A.G. Yodh, Phonons in two-dimensional colloidal crystals with bond-strength disorder. Physical Review E 87, 052301 (2013).

P. J. Yunker, M. Gratale, M.A. Lohr, T. Still, T.C. Lubensky, and A.G. Yodh, Influence of particle shape on bending rigidity of colloidal monolayer membranes and particle deposition during droplet evaporation in confined geometries. Physical Review Letters 108, 228303 (2012).

Still, P.J. Yunker, and A.G. Yodh, Influence of different kind of surfactants on evaporating drops of colloidal suspensions: Suppressing the coffee-ring effect. Langmuir 28, 4984-4988 (2012).

P. J. Yunker, T. Still, M.A. Lohr, and A.G. Yodh, Suppression of the coffee-ring effect by shape-dependent capillary interactions. Nature 476, 308-311 (2011).

P. J. Yunker, K. Chen, Z. Zhang, and A.G. Yodh, Phonon spectra, nearest neighbors, and mechanical stability of disordered colloidal clusters with attractive interactions. Physical Review Letters106, 225503 (2011).

P. J. Yunker, K. Chen, Z.X. Zhang, W.G. Ellenbroek, A.J. Liu, and A.G. Yodh, Rotational and translational phonon modes in glasses composed of ellipsoidal particles. Physical Review E 83, 011403 (2011).

Z. Zhang, P. J. Yunker, P. Habdas, and A.G. Yodh, Cooperative rearrangement regions and dynamical heterogeneities in attractive versus repulsive colloidal glasses. Physical Review Letters 107, 208303 (2011).

K. Chen, M. L. Manning, P.J. Yunker, W.G. Ellenbroek, Z. Zhang, A.J. Liu, A.G. Yodh, Measurement of correlations between low-frequency vibrational modes and particle rearrangements in quasi-two-dimensional colloidal glasses. Physical Review Letters107, 108301 (2011).

P. Yunker, Z.X. Zhang, and A.G. Yodh, Observation of the disorder-induced crystal-to-glass transition. Physical Review Letters 104, 015701 (2010).

Chen, W.G. Ellenbroek, Z.X. Zhang, D.T.N. Chen, P.J. Yunker, S. Henkes, C. Brito, O. Dauchot, W. van Saarloos, A.J. Liu, and A.G. Yodh, Low-frequency vibrations of soft colloidal glasses. Physical Review Letters 105, 025501 (2010).

P. Yunker, Z. Zhang, K.A. Aptowicz, and A.G. Yodh, Irreversible rearrangements, correlated domains, and local structure in aging glasses. Physical Review Letters 103, 115701 (2009).

Zhang, N. Xu, D.T.N. Chen, P. Yunker, A. Alsayed, K.B. Aptowicz, P. Habdas, A.J. Liu, S. Nagel, and A.G. Yodh, Thermal vestige of the zero-temperature jamming transition. Nature 459, 230-233 (2009).

Y. Han, Y. Shokef, A.M. Alsayed, P. Yunker, T.C. Lubensky, and A.G. Yodh, Geometric frustration in buckled colloidal monolayers. Nature 456, 898-903 (2008).