Vivek Shenoy and the Power of Penn

Earlier this month in Boston, Penn President Amy Gutmann hosted a panel discussion as part of the “Power of Penn” campaign. This event was one of several being held in major cities, aiming to raise $4.1 billion for the University’s priorities, underpinned by the commitment to innovation, inclusion, and impact.

That panel featured highly interdisciplinary researchers from across the university, including Vivek Shenoy, the Eduardo D. Glandt President’s Distinguished Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Shenoy has appointments in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics and Bioengineering. He draws on all of those disciplines as the director of the Center for Engineering Mechanobiology, which was established through the National Science Foundation’s Science and Technology Center program to investigate the physical interplay between cells and their environment.

Using mathematical tools, they are researching the way cells are influenced by the physical forces in their environment, with implications for cancer, heart disease, traumatic brain injury, and tissue engineering.

“At the end of the day a cell cannot be looked at in isolation,” because interactions with surroundings “impact everything within the cell,” he said. “We are trying to piece together all of these events to create a story.”

Continue reading about the Power of Penn event in Boston at Penn Today.