Dr. Tamal Das

Collective Cellular Dynamics (CCD) Lab

Cells in our body seldom live alone. Many important physiological processes, including embryonic development, organogenesis, regeneration, and wound healing, require tens or even hundreds of cells to coordinate their actions in such a way that they essentially act as a single entity or a collective. Collective cell behavior also determines the efficiency of cancer progression and metastasis. In our group, we aim to reveal the rules and the underlying molecular mechanisms that enable the cells

• To coordinate their movements (Collective Cell Migration)
• To maintain specific shape and size (Geometry-Regulated Inhibition of Cell Division)
• To initiate the removal of any precariously transformed individual (Cell Competition)

To this end, we take a unique interdisciplinary and integrative approach where molecular biology and optogenetic tools are coupled with force and motion measurement techniques.