Chancellor’s Professor and Chair, Bioengineering
Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Professor in Residence, Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, UCSF
Faculty Scientist, Biological Systems and Engineering, LBNL
Phone: (510) 642-5833
https://kumarlab.berkeley.edu/
274A Stanley HallUC Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1762
Subject areas:
Research
Our lab seeks to understand and control mechanical and other biophysical communication between cells and their surroundings. Three recent important recent directions for our work have been to: (1) Develop and apply biomaterial platforms and micro/nanoscale technologies to probe cellular force generation and migration; (2) Engineer new tissue-mimetic culture platforms for discovery, molecular analysis, and screening (often in collaboration with clinical colleagues); and (3) Explore mechanobiological signaling systems as targets for limiting the invasion of brain tumors and enhancing stem cell neurogenesis. Finally, we have recently begun to develop new materials based on cellular structural networks that may have broader applications in synthetic biology and soft materials science.