Topics

• Biological membranes and soft interfaces
• Mechanobiology and cytoskeletal dynamics
• Adhesion, mechanics and signalling in lymphocytes
• Quantitative microscopy and image analysis

Publications

Reviews:

• Quantifying dynamical adhesion processes with Reflection Interference Contrast Microscopy (RICM), Laurent Limozin and Kheya Sengupta. Invited review, ChemPhysChem, 10(16):2752–2768 (2009).
• Giant Vesicles as Cell Models. Susanne Fenz and Kheya Sengupta, Integrative Biology, 4 (2012): 982–995.
• Shape Fluctuations in Biological Membranes – Experimental Techniques and Biophysical Significance, Cornelia Monzel and Kheya Sengupta. Invited Review, J. Phys. D, 29(24): 243002 (2016).
• Morphodynamics of T-lymphocytes: Scanning to spreading, Kheya Sengupta, Pierre Dillard, Laurent Limozin, Biophys. J. (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2024.02.023.

Book Chapters:

• Membrane Adhesion, Kheya Sengupta and Ana-Suncana Smith, in Physics of Biological Membranes, eds. Patricia Bassereau and Pierre Sens. Springer (2018). ISBN 978-3-030-00630-3. Springer link.
• Measuring Giant Vesicle Adhesion, Ana-Suncana Smith and Kheya Sengupta, in The Giant Vesicle Book, eds. Carlos Marquez and Rumiana Dimova. CRC Press (2019). ISBN 9781315152516.
• Observing Membrane and Cell Adhesion via Reflection Interference Contrast Microscopy, Ahmed Abdelrahman, Ana-Suncana Smith and Kheya Sengupta, in Springer Protocols: Methods in Molecular Biology, The Immune Synapse: Methods and Protocols, Vol. 2654 (2023): 123–135.

People and Alumni

• Gaurav Varma (PhD)
• Beatriz Bello (PD)
Alumni:
• Remy Torro (R&D, France)
• Zakaria Marmri (R&D)
• Astrid Wahl (Sci Admin)
• Celine Dinnet (PD, France)
• Pierre Dillard (R&D)
• Emmanuelle Benard (R&D)
• Aya Nassereddine (PD, USA)
• Farah Mustafa (PD, USA)
• Fuwei Pi (PI, China)
• Arif Kamal (PD, Sweden)
• Mariem Soussi (R&D, France)
• Ahmed Sharaf (PD, Paris)
• Susanne Fenz (PI, Germany)
• Cornelia Monzel (PI, Germany)
• Arnaud Hemmerle (synchrotron SOLEIL)

Collaborations

• Laurent Limozin (LAI, Marseille)
• Pierre-Henri Puech (LAI, Marseille)
• Anne Charrier (CINaM, Marseille)
• Rajat Varma (NIH, USA)
• Jacques Nunes (IPC, Marseille)
• Shalini Low-Nam (Perdue, USA)
• Yannik Hamon (CIML, Marseille)
• Erich Sackmann (Munich)
• Rudi Merkel (Julich)
• Ana Smith (Erlangen)
• Udo Seifert (Stuttgart)
• Emmanuele Helfer (CINaM, Marseille)
• Chrostophe Le Clainche (Paris)

Brief CV

Kheya Sengupta did her PhD on liquid-crystalline phases of phospholipids at RRI, Bangalore with V. A, Raghunathan. She moved to Munich as a post-doctoral fellow with an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship, to study physics of bio-membranes and bio-polymers at the laboratory of Erich Sackmann. Later, she went on to study cell mechanics and cell adhesion in Paul Janmey’s lab at U-Penn, Philadelphia. She came back to Germany as a research associate at the Forschungszentrum Julich in the laboratory of Rudolf Merkel, where she continued her work on adhesion, including further development of reflection interference contrast microscopy. In 2007 she joined the National Scientific Research Council of France (CNRS) with a permanent position as independent researcher and moved to the interdisciplinary unit of CINaM in Marseilles, where she develops novel optical techniques and surface nano-patterning tools to study adhesion and mechanical properties of cells and cell mimetic model systems. Her research in the last decade has revealed the physical basis of entropy dominated membrane adhesion, and the role of membrane fluctuations. In recent years, she has contributed to the understanding of the response of T cells to environmental mechanics, notably shedding light on TCR-coupling to the cytoskeleton. Her overall research interest encompasses fundamental questions ranging from model membranes to immune therapy.

Funding

• CNRS
• ANR (2018-2029)
• AMU/AMIDEX (2016-2022)
• European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant, 2013-2017)

Contact:

kheya.sengupta(at)cnrs.fr