Research

Cancer growth and metastasis occur when an aberrantly growing tissue hijacks the resources of the body for its own nourishment and dissipation. Trigger for a cancerous tissue to metastasize can be both physical as well as chemical. We are looking at the biophysical aspect of cancer invasion and metastasis. Extracellular matrix (ECM) surrounding the cell provides the cancer cells with physical cues for motility and invasion. The stimulus from tumor microenvironment communicates to the intracellular cytoskeleton through integrins and other actin bundling proteins. We are studying the role of the ECM in modulating cancer cell behavior during tumor progression. We combine experimental and computational techniques for studying cancer metastasis.

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent cells that have the ability to differentiate into multiple lineages and, this process of pluripotency and differentiation is greatly dependant on the chemical and biophysical properties of the ESC niche. Currently, we are studying the mechanical role of feeders in regulating ESC pluripotency, and making use of this information in fabricating synthetic substrates to regulate stem cell fate.

Physical features of the extracellular matrix (ECM) including stiffness porosity, topography, geometry, ligand spacing, and dimensionality, profoundly influence cell behaviour. The success in developing tissue engineering scaffolds for cellular engineering lies in successfully recapitulating some of the ECM cues highlighted above. We are trying to mimic the physical features of the microenvironment using biomaterials with tunable mechanical properties.