Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
9:30-10:20am
MJIS 1001 or Via Zoom:
https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/95150439811?pwd=a3hOK0o0bmpkS3poTVBCbVhDNU9FZz09
Cancer Mechanobiology
Tanmay Lele, Ph.D.
Unocal Professor
Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering
Texas A&M University
Abstract: Many solid tumors are detected by self-palpitation as stiff lumps in the tissue. This gross observation is a manifestation of mechanical changes that begin at the cell level. Tumors are stiff
because tumor cells modify the cellular and extracellular matrix (ECM) constituents of the tumor microenvironment. The resulting increased stiffness in turn reciprocally influences tumor cell behavior, promoting cell proliferation, invasive migration that
leads to new tumors at secondary sites, and resistance to therapeutic drugs. How mechanical changes in tumors occur and how they alter the biology and pharmacology of cancer cells is the subject of the growing field of cancer mechanobiology. I will present
ongoing research efforts in my lab to understand how mechanical changes in tumors can impact nuclear, cell and tissue structure and function.
Bio: Dr. Tanmay Lele is Unocal Professor at Texas A&M University in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering. Dr. Lele’s expertise is in the area of mechanobiology. He was awarded the PhD from Purdue University
in Chemical Engineering in 2002. This was followed by postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School/Children’s hospital. He joined the University of Florida as an Assistant Professor in 2006. There he was honored with the NSF CAREER award, the American Heart
Investigator’s National Scientist Development grant, and was supported by several NIH and NSF grants. Dr. Lele was recruited to Texas A&M through the CPRIT established investigator award in 2020.
~BME Faculty Host: Dr. Luis Solorio ~