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Sovan Lal Das, PhD (Cornell University)

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Category: Mechanical Engineering
Published Date
Written by Super User
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Assistant Professor

Research Interest: Mechanics of Biological Membranes, Vibration and buckling of shells, Waves in tires.
Email: sovandas[AT]iitk.ac.in
Ph: +91-512- 259-7035(O)
Website:  http://home.iitk.ac.in/~sovandas
Biologists and biophysicists have long been intrigued by bio-membranes that not only isolate cells and their internal compartments from one another, but also are important for the functionality of cells. However, due to the complicated nature of the cell membrane and the sizes of rafts being on nanometer-scale, it is extremely hard to conduct a systematic investigation. A simpler system in which the physical and chemical properties of lipid assembly can be studied is the bilayer membrane of a vesicle. Of particular importance and relevance to cell biology are the Giant Unilameller Vesicles (GUVs) with coexisting liquid ordered (lo) and liquid disordered (ld) domains. Currently, we are investigating various mechanical aspects of a membrane that influence cell functionality using GUV as a model system. The examples include: (1) influence of membrane curvatures on binding of certain proteins to lipid bilayer membrane and vice versa (with Dr. T. Baumgart), (2) Adhesion of multi-component membranes and effect of substrate geometry (with Prof. Q. Du), (3) Size sorting high deformable objects like lipid bilayer vesicles on a wrinkled substrates (with Dr. A. Ghatak), (4) Motion, interaction and growth of domains in vesicle membranes.