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:

Mechanics of subcellular organization: How does a cell build and organize its internal structures to control its mechanical behavior?
Single-cell biophysics: How do single cells coordinate their growth with replication cycle to control their size, shape and biophysical activities?
Collective behavior in multicellular systems: How do cells in a population communicate, coordinate and cooperate to successfully proliferate, transmit mechanical forces, and repair damages?

Selected Recent Papers

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Mechanical and biochemical feedback combine to generate complex contractile oscillations in cytokinesis
Werner M et al, Current Biology 34, 3201 (2024)

Excitable dynamics driven by mechanical feedback in biological tissues
Perez-Verdugo F et al, Communications Physics 7, 167 (2024)

Gene Expression Tradeoffs Determine Bacterial Survival and Adaptation to Antibiotic Stress
Kratz JC and Banerjee S, PRX Life 2, 013010 (2024)

Tension Remodeling Regulates Topological Transitions in Epithelial Tissues
Perez-Verdugo F and Banerjee S, PRX Life 1, 023006 (2023)

Cell-Matrix Elastocapillary Interactions Drive Pressure-Based Wetting of Cell Aggregates
Yousafzai M et al, PRX 12, 031027 (2022)

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