The Mechanobiologics Lab focuses on two broad research themes in the mechanobiology field: cancer mechanobiology and stem cell mechanobiology. ​

The research in cancer mechanobiology focuses on studying and recapitulating the micro/nanoscale architecture of the cancerous tissues using microfluidic devices and biomaterial platforms. Recently the field has learnt that cancer cells are mechanosensitive and undergo apoptosis when subjected to physiologically relevant mechanical forces. Thus, our next objective is to investigate the effect of mechanical force on cancer cells grown on the platforms mimicking in vivo microenvironment. The insight gained will be used for optimization of mechanical forces to maximize cancer cell killing and development of therapeutic strategies and technologies for the clinical treatment. In particular, our lab is interested in oral cancer which is the second most prevalent cancer in India. ​

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