A. N. Malmi-Kakkada

The paper investigates how cell-cell contact area and tissue growth dynamics influence synthetic juxtacrine signaling patterns using a custom gene circuit in Drosophila wing imaginal discs and mathematical modeling.

The paper shows that microtubule deacetylation reduces cell stiffness, enabling collective cell migration in vivo by adapting to substrate stiffness changes.

The paper shows that mechanical heterogeneity along cell-cell junctions during vertebrate axis elongation is driven by cadherin clustering and Planar Cell Polarity signaling.

The paper shows that cell-cell adhesion strength influences tumor growth rates through a pressure-adhesion feedback loop, with an optimal adhesion level maximizing proliferation.

The paper studies collective cell migration in tumor evolution, finding that growth rate influences the transition from glassy to super-diffusive behavior and reveals super-diffusion's universality in non-equilibrium systems.