Banerjee Lab

One of the grand challenges of the 21st century is to understand, control, and re-engineer a living system from its many component parts to reconstitute the unique functions, structures, and material properties that define life. Our lab takes on this challenge by building quantitative models rooted in physics that bring out the design rules sculpting biological form, function, and behaviour across different spatiotemporal scales and organisational levels. Our work is organised around three main themes:

(1) Design principles for building subcellular structures: How does a cell construct its internal structures with precise morphologies and mechanical properties?
(2) Mechanics of growth, form and adaptation: How does a cell allocate its biochemical resources to optimise the fitness for growth, size control and adaptation to changing environments?
(3) Multicellular organisation and decision-making: How do cells in a population communicate, coordinate and cooperate to successfully proliferate, transmit mechanical forces, and repair damages?

Latest Papers

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Cell-type specific mechanical response and myosin dynamics during retinal lens development in Drosophila
Blackie L et al, Mol Biol Cell 31, 1355 (2020)

The Actin Cytoskeleton as an Active Adaptive Material
Banerjee S et al, Ann Rev Cond Mat Phys 11, 421 (2020)

RhoA mediates epithelial cell shape changes via mechanosensitive endocytosis
Cavanaugh K et al, Dev Cell 52, 152 (2020)

Mechanosensitive junction remodelling promotes robust epithelial morphogenesis
Staddon MF et al, Biophysical Journal 117, 1739 (2019)

Surface-to-volume scaling and aspect ratio preservation in rod-shaped bacteria
Ojkic N et al, eLife 8, e47033 (2019)

Tissue fluidity promotes epithelial wound healing
Tetley RJ et al, Nature Physics 15, 1995 (2019)

Wound healing coordinates actin architectures to regulate mechanical work
Ajeti V et al, Nature Physics 15, 696 (2019)

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