Mechanotransduction

Adam J. Engler is a professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego and is affiliated with the Material Science and Biomedical Sciences Programs. He also is a resident scientist at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. His research focuses on how physical properties of the niche influence stem cell function and misregulate muscle function and heart performance during disease and aging. Dr. Engler earned his B.S.E. degree in bioengineering and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania in the lab of Dr. Dennis Discher. Dr. Engler then moved to Princeton University's Department of Molecular Biology as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the lab of Dr. Jean Schwarzbauer where his work was funded by the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Engler is the 2008 recipient of the Rupert Timpl and Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Awards from the International Society for Matrix Biology and the Biomedical Engineering Society, respectively. He is also a 2009 NIH Innovator Award recipient, a 2010 Young Investigator Awardee from the Human Frontier Science Program, and a 2013 IDEA Awardee from the Dept. of Defense.

Sanjay Kumar is Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Chair of the UC Berkeley & UCSF Graduate Program at UC Berkeley, Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Faculty Director of the UC Berkeley & UCSF Master of Translational Medicine Program. He earned a B.S. in chemical engineering (1996) from the University of Minnesota and then moved on to Johns Hopkins University, where he earned an M.D. (2003) and a Ph.D. in molecular biophysics (2003). Since joining the UC Berkeley faculty in 2005, Dr. Kumar has been fortunate to receive a number of honors, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), The NIH Director's New Innovator Award, The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Young Investigator Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Hellman Family Faculty Fund Award, and the Stem Cells Young Investigator Award.