Oliver Otto received his PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge (UK), working with Prof. Ulrich Keyser on single-molecule mechanics using optical tweezers. In 2012, he joined the research group of Prof. Jochen Guck at the Technical University of Dresden (Germany) as a postdoctoral researcher. Four years later, he moved to the University of Greifswald (Germany) to establish his own research group. Throughout these positions, his research focused on developing high-throughput methods for the mechanical characterization of cells. Since 2021, Oliver Otto has been Professor of Cellular Biophysics at the Institute of Physics at the University of Greifswald, where he is serving as Director since 2026. He also has been actively involved in the German Society for Cytometry, as a member of the steering committee and as President of the Society from 2024 – 2026.

Our research group focuses on understanding how mechanical properties of cells and tissue impact on biological function. Specifically, we are interested in the development of optical methods and microfluidic systems to study the rheology of single cells and multicellular systems (spheroids) at high spatiotemporal resolution. I find it absolutely fascinating that simple physical concepts such as elasticity, viscosity, diffusion and hydrodynamics can describe and explain fundamental processes of life. Two of the most intriguing examples are leukocyte recruitment to sites of infection, where cells need to deform and migrate during extravasation as well as the contraction of cardiomyocytes – pure physics at work.

Oliver Otto is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the start-up Zellmechanik Dresden, which commercializes real-time deformability cytometry, a technology for high-throughput characterization of cell mechanical properties.