Previous Research Projects
“Assessing the oligomerization of E-cadherin molecules on the membrane using Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS)”. (Under guidance of Prof. Satyajit Mayor, and in collaboration with Rumamol Chandran, at ‘National Centre for Biological Sciences’, Bengaluru, India.)
We used FCS to assess the oligomerization of E-cadherin molecules, on the membrane of hemocytes. We found that the oligomerization enhances as a function of the extracellular cis-interaction between E-cadherin extracellular domains, and diminishes as a function of cytoplasmic interaction between E-cadherin and F-actin. We are also putting these results in the broader context of E-cadherin nano-clustering, to propose a model with hierarchical organization of E-cadherin molecules on free membrane.
“Assessing the effect of tensile forces on E-cadherin recruitment in embryonic ectoderm”. (Under guidance of Dr. Thomas Lecuit and Dr. Pierre-Francois Lenne, at ‘Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille’, Marseille, France., and in collaboration with Xingbo Yang)
We established and used Vinculin recruitment to E-cadherin adhesion complexes as a readout of load on E-cadherin. We used laser ablations and mechanical inference to establish correlations with tension distribution and established Vinc/E-cad ratio as a microscopic readout of tension at adhesion complexes. We further demonstrated that the Myosin-II exerts tension of distinct orientation on E-cadherin depending on where the tension is generated, i.e. on the junction itself or in the apical cortex. We also found that the perpendicular tension in apical cortex increases E-cadherin levels, while parallel tension in the junction exerts shear forces to reduce E-cadherin levels.
“Assessing the effect of tensile forces on E-cadherin adhesion assembly in hemocyte primary cell culture”. (Under guidance of Dr. Thomas Lecuit and Dr. Pierre-Francois Lenne, at ‘Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille’, Marseille, France.)
In this project, we wanted to establish a cell culture-based system to assess the process of adhesion maturation in the presence of tensile forces. We cultured hemocytes, which exogenously expressed E-cadherin, on high refractive index elastic substrate to assess the effect of tensile forces on the assembly of E-cadherin based adhesion complexes. We analyzed localization of adherens junction components like, E-cadherin, beta-catenin, alpha-catenin, as well as distribution of F-actin, Myosin-II and phosphomimetic Myosin-II in hemocytes. We also build a ‘cell stretcher’ device to impose equibiaxial loading on the cells.
“Measuring the traction forces exerted by the neuronal growth cone, grown on polyacrylamide gel surface”. (Under guidance of Dr. Aurnab Ghose, at ‘Indian Institute of Science Education and Research’, Pune, India.)
We measured the traction forces exerted by the neuronal growth cone as they translocate on a polyacrylamide gel, coated with ECM like protein components. The project tried to dissect the role played by the force transduction and related mechano-signalling inside the growth cone.
“Stability through perturbation in Drosophila populations” (Under the guidance of Dr. Sutirth Dey, at ‘Indian Institute of Science Education and Research’, Pune, India.)
In this study project, we tried to analyze effects of perturbation on the size of Drosophila sub- and meta-populations, through computer simulations and wet experiments. The main aim was to analyze the stability of a population in terms of its Fluctuation Index (FI) with different magnitudes and densities of perturbation as variables.