My Research Focus
I am interested in studying the mechanics and its process around living systems. Hence, I use various tools to probe and understand how environmental cues affect cellular response and moreover how the mechano response of such cellular systems contribute to overal tissue function.
Mechanobiology of single cells in 3D
Mechanobiological insights are widely studied as they contribute to the guiding of (stem) cell function and fate. Current studies investigate such mechanisms using engineered artificial matrices that are defined by their macro-level mechanical property. Yet, cells inside any matrix can sense mechanics at the nano and micro scale. Moreover, heterogeneity in cell populations yields mixed insights into how mechanotransduction affects overall stem cell function and obscures our understanding of subsequent downstream biophysical behaviour.
To precisely understand how heterogeneous stem cell populations sense and transduce their microscale mechanics, I use single cell artificial microniches which composed of an individual cell (primary cells, stem cells, iPSCs) coated in a few micron thick hydrogel. The hydrogel around the single cell can be tuned for its mechanical properties and mechanoresponse of single cells are studied in 3D.
Mechanical hierarchy in metamaterials
Engineering of tissues has relied on homogeneous cell-material mixtures that are either entirely soft or stiff. Technological solutions to encode tissues with spatially controlled hierarchies have remained largely elusive. To overcome these limitations in building hierarchically structured meta materials we use differences in materials’ physical properties to create paradoxical mechanical properties with same three dimensional hydrogel constructs.
Organoid engineering and mechanoregulation
Organoids are engineered 3D structures which recapitulate the structure and function of a certain type of tissue. However, these organoid systems are currently being vastly studied, and how mechanics regulate the development of organoids and their underlying mechanistic insights are not widely explored. To address this challenge I use microfluidic-driven production of “organoid hubs” first to overcome the reproducibility challenge where we can produce 1000 organoids per second. I further use these organoids to study mechanoregulation in development and disease.
Mechanically stable hydrogel coatings for medical devices
Hydrogel coatings can improve the biocompatibility of medical devices. However, stable surface bonding and homogeneity of hydrogel coatings are often challenging. Hence the mehcnaical stability is often compromised. To address this challenge I used biohybrid hydrogels of crosslinked four-armed poly(ethylene glycol) and heparin to enhance the hemocompatibility and stability of cobalt‑chromium (CoCr) vascular stents. Multilevel surface treatment techniques enabled stable and reactive hydrogel deposition on the surface of the stents with increased functionality.