Medhavi Vishwaakarma

Assistant Professor

Phone : +91-80-2293-3709 (O)
E-mail: medhavi@iisc.ac.in
Website: https://vishwakarmalab.com/

 

Research Interests:
Epithelial mechanobiology, cell competition, cancer initiation

Educational History

Research Associate: University of Bristol, United Kingdom (2018-2020)
Scientific Assistant: Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Germany (2017-2018)
PhD (2017): Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland (Bioengineering)
Masters (2012): Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India

Courses offered

Cell Mechanics (BE-211)

Fundamentals of Bioengineering 2 (BE 214)

Awards / Honours / Affiliations

  1. Guest researcher, Max Planck Institute for medical research: 2018- present
  2. Head of the Max Planck Partner Group, “Cancer Initiation”: 2022-2027
  3. Principal Investigator, SERB-SRG Grant, “Role of heterogeneity in Epithelial Defence against Cancer”: 2022-2024
  4. WIN Kolleg, Heidelberg Academy of Science, “Collective Sensing”:  2019-2022

Publications

  • Vishwakarma M., and Piddini E. “Outcompeting Cancer”, Nature Review Cancer doi:10.1038/s41568-019- 0231-8, (2020).
  • Vishwakarma M., Di Russo J., Probst D., Schwarz U. S., Das T., and Spatz J. P. “Mechanical interactions among followers determines the emergence of leaders in migrating epithelial cell collectives”, Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05927-6, (2018).
  • Vishwakarma M., Thurakkal B., Spatz J. P. and Das T. “Dynamic heterogeneity influences leader-follower dynamics during epithelial wound closure”, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0391, (2020).