Lance C. Kam

These cues, which include the microscale distribution of signaling proteins and local mechanical properties of the environment, allow cells to organize into functional tissues that carry out sophisticated behaviors. Current projects include the use of these principles to control the activation and function of immune cells, leading to next-generation systems that can harness adaptive immunity to treat disease.

A major theme of the Kam group is the emerging field of immune cell mechanobiology. A surprising discovery by the group was that T lymphocytes (key modulators of the adaptive immune response) can sense the mechanical stiffness of a material presenting activating ligands, altering a range of responses including cytokine secretion and proliferation. Current projects seek to understand how these cells carry out this mechanosensing and develop new uses of this behavior in cellular engineering. As an important application of this result, mechanosensing is being used to improve production of T cells for therapeutic purposes. Complementary projects focus on how the microscale organization of cellular signaling similarly drives cell response and can be used to improve cell production.

Dr. Kam earned BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Physics from Washington University in St. Louis, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Hawaii at Manoa, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Following postdoctoral research in Chemistry at Stanford University, he joined Columbia University in 2003.

Research Areas

• Mechanobiology
• Biomaterials
• Cell & Tissue Engineering
• Genomics and Computational Modeling
• Medical Devices and Systems
• Cell and Tissue Biomechanics
• Personalized Medicine and Patient-Specific Modeling
• Immunoengineering