Join Us for an Intellectual Sunday!

Date: 19th Apr 2026
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: KnockOut Sports Bar & Kitchen, Unit no. 8, Eleven West, Pancard Club Rd, Baner, Pune, Maharashtra 411045

The cost includes food and drinks!

About the lecture

Cells in our body come together to form tissues, which then define organs. Did you know this is made possible by the “Matrix” that cells secrete, which acts as a scaffold to anchor cells and eventually provides organs with their distinct shape and stiffness? I will talk to you about what this “Matrix" is, why understanding its organization and mechanical properties is important to regulating cell growth and migration. We will also consider how cancer cells bypass this regulation, enabling their growth and spread and making them hard to treat. Finally, we will ask whether this ‘glitch in the matrix’ can be fixed to treat cancers?

About the speaker

Nagaraj Balasubramanian is a cell biologist by training. Nagaraj graduated from the University of Mumbai (Bombay) with a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Microbiology. He went on to earn a PhD in Biochemistry from the Cancer Research Institute (now ACTREC) at the Tata Memorial Center, focusing on cell-matrix adhesion. Taking a break from cancer biology, he did a postdoc in mammalian phototransduction at the University of Miami, only to return to cell and cancer biology, focusing on cell adhesion and trafficking at the University of Virginia. He moved to IISER, Pune, to start his own research lab in 2010. Multiple agencies have funded his research and has been extensively published. He has been recognized for his teaching at IISER, Pune, and is also interested in science communication and the arts.