Position Title
Professor
- Biomedical Engineering
Sanjeevi obtained his Ph.D. in Biophysics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and then did a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University/UC Berkeley. In 2008, Sanjeevi started his independent laboratory as an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University. In September 2018, his group moved to UC Davis.
Sanjeevi's group has made several key contributions to characterizing the molecular mechanisms by which cell adhesion proteins sense and respond to mechanical force. His group is also inventing several new bioengineering technologies including molecular technologies to map adhesive protein interactions in live cells and microscopy tools for ultrasensitive-measurement of single-molecule interaction and conformation.
Research in the Sivasankar lab has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, and a Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Award from the March of Dimes Foundation.
Molecular and cellular mechanobiology, single molecule biophysics, instrument development
Dr. Sivasankar aims to resolve the physical principles by which cells sense and respond to mechanical stimuli. The Sivasankar Group focuses two research
themes: the biophysical studies of mechanical tension sensing in cells and
bioengineering tool development. The group’s projects include biophysical studies of cell-cell adhesion and its regulation and the development of high resolution techniques to quantify the effect of mechanical force on protein structure-function.