Kavya Pendyala

Research Interests

• Kavya Pendyala works in Dr. Tanmay Lele's lab. Pendyala's research interests are in the area of mechanobiology, with efforts in understanding the molecular mechanisms by which cell-generated mechanical forces and associated signaling pathways enable cell and tissue functions. Her current research focuses on the evolution of cells under mechanical constraints. Using the experimental evolution of cell populations, she recently demonstrated that the stiffness of the extracellular substrate can impose natural selection on genetically variable cell populations. Her team is now building on this previous work to understand cancer cell evolution under mechanical selection pressures which are generally present during cancer progression.