Sanjay Kumar
 | Associate Professor, Bioengineering 274A Stanley Hall Membership effective July 2005 |
Research Interests
Cellular mechanobiology; engineering interfaces between living and nonliving systems; bioengineering and biophysics of cancer and stem cells; biomimetic materials
Research Summary
Dr. Kumar's research program lies at the interface of molecular and cellular bioengineering, with a specific focus on the transduction between mechanical and bioochemical information in living systems. Using a combination of biomaterials fabrication, molecular and cell biology, and single-cell microtechnologies, his group seeks to understand and leverage these processes in the conext of stem cell engineering and cancer. More recently, his group has begun to take synthetic biology-inspired approaches to engineer the cell-biomaterial interface and create new "smart," biomimetic materials.
Selected Publications
C.-W. Chang and S. Kumar (2013). Vinculin tension distributions of individual stress fibers within cell-matrix adhesions. Journal of Cell Science (in press).
S. Kumar (2013). Microtubule assembly: Switched on with magnets. Nature Nanotechnology 8: 162-163.
A. J. Keung, P. Asuri, S. Kumar*, and D. V. Schaffer* [*co-corresponding] (2012). Soft microenvironments promote the early neurogenic differentiation but not self-renewal of human pluripotent stem cells. Integrative Biology 21: 1049-1058.
A. Pathak and S. Kumar (2012). Indepedent control of tumor cell migration by marix stiffness and confinement. PNAS 109: 10334-10339.
N. Srinivasan and S. Kumar (2012). Ordered and disordered proteins as nanomaterial building blocks. WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology 4: 214-218.
J. L. MacKay, A. J. Keung, and S. Kumar (2012). A genetic strategy for the graded and dynamic control of cell mechanics, motility, and matrix remodeling. Biophysical Journal 102: 434-442.
A. J. Keung*, E. M. de Juan-Pardo*, D. V. Schaffer, and S. Kumar (2011). Rho GTPases Mediate the Mechanosensitive Lineage Commitment of Neural Stem Cells. Stem Cells 29: 1886-1897 [*equal contribution].
B. Ananthanarayanan, Y. Kim, and S. Kumar (2011). Elucidating the mechanobiology of malignant brain tumors using a brain matrix-mimetic hyaluronic acid hydrogel platform. Biomaterials 32: 7913-7923.
A. Pathak and S. Kumar (2011). Biophysical regulation of tumor cell invasion: Moving beyond matrix stiffness. Integrative Biology 3: 267-278.
T. A. Ulrich, E. M. de Juan Pardo, and S. Kumar (2009). The mechanical rigidity of the extracellular matrix regulates the structure, motility, and proliferation of glioma cells. Cancer Research 69: 4167-4174.