Zachary Gao Sun

I’m Zachary Gao Sun, a physicist working at the interface of soft matter, biophysics, and developmental biology. I study how cytoskeletal networks—actin, keratin, and vimentin—organize, adapt, and “learn” to build tissues. I combine in-vitro reconstitution with live zebrafish imaging to map the energy landscapes that steer cell fate and morphogenesis. I’m currently a visiting postdoc at Harvard SEAS (Sept–Dec 2025) and next joining Carl-Philipp Heisenberg’s group at ISTA. My goal is to turn physical principles of living matter into tools for correcting developmental errors and programming tissue mechanics.