Kheya Sengupta

Activity

Soft-matter, Biophysics, Nano-science

Themes

ResearcherID: E-8629-2011 || ORCID: 0000-0002-1060-2713

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.

Recherche

Current research:

• Adhesion and fluctuations of model membranes.
• Adhesion, mechanics and activation of T lymphocytes.
• Development of novel surface nano-patterning techniques for controlled stimulation of cells.
• Development of novel optical imaging tools for imaging cell/membrane adhesion and fluctuations.

Some of the completed work is summarized in the following book chapters and reviews:

Reviews:

·       Quantifying dynamical adhesion processes with Reflection interference contrast microscopy (RICM), Laurent Limozin and Kheya Sengupta. 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. JPhys. D. 29 (24), 243002 (2016) .

·       Morphodynamics of T-lymphocytes: Scanning to spreading, Kheya Sengupta, Pierre Dillard, Laurent Limozin. BiophysJ.2024 10.1016/j.bpj.2024.02.023.

Book chapters:

·       Membrane Adhesion, Kheya Sengupta and Ana-Suncana Smith, in "Physics of Biological Membranes", Edited by Patricia Bassereau and Pierre Sens. Springer (2018) ISBN 978-3-030-00630-3 (https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030006280).

·       Measuring Giant Vesicle adhesion, Ana-Suncana Smith and Kheya Sengupta, in "The Giant Vesicle Book", Edited by 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 2654 (2023): 123-135.

Parcours

Research positions:

·       January 2007-present: Scientific researcher, CINaM-CNRS.

·       April 2005 – December 2006: Staff Scientist, Institut für Bio- und Nanosysteme (IBN-4), Biomechanik, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Leo-Brandt-Straße, 52428 Jülich, Deutschland.

·       February 2004 - March 2005: Post-doctoral research fellow, Institute of Medicine and Engineering, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 1010 Vagelos Labs., 3340 Smith Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104 , USA.

·       March 2001 - December 2003: Post-doctoral research fellow. (March 2001 – November 2002: Alexander von Humboldt fellow, November 2002- August 2003: Fellow of the Max Plank Institute),Physik-Department - E22 (Biophysik), Technische Universität München, James-Franck-Strasse, D-85748 Garching, Deutschland.

·       August 2000 - February 2001: Research fellow, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.

·       August 1995 - July 2000: Ph.D. in Physics Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India. Thesis: Investigations on the ripple phase of phospholipid bilayers (Advisor: V. A. Raghunathan

Research Publications (from 2015 onwards):

·       Crowding of receptors induces ring-like adhesions in model membranes, D. Schmidt, T. Bihr, S. Fenz, R. Merkel, U. Seifert, K. Sengupta, and A.-S. Smith. Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta-Molecular Cell Research 1853 (11) 2984-2991 (2015).

·       Size-Tunable Organic Nanodot Arrays: A Versatile Platform for Manipulating and Imaging Cells, Fuwei Pi, Pierre Dillard, Ranime Alameddine, Emmanuelle Benard, Astrid Wahl, Igor Ozerov, Anne Charrier, Laurent Limozin, and Kheya Sengupta, Nano Letters, 15 (8) 5178-5184 (2015).

·       Measuring fast stochastic displacements of bio-membranes with dynamic optical displacement spectroscopy.  C. Monzel, D. Schmidt, C. Kleusch, D. Kirchenbuechler, U. Seifert, A.-S. Smith, K. Sengupta and R. Merkel. Nature communications. 6, 8162 (2015).

·       Nano-clustering of Ligands on Surrogate Antigen Presenting Cells Modulates T cell Membrane Adhesion and Organization. Pierre Dillard, Fuwei Pi, Annemarie Lellouche, Laurent Limozin, Kheya Sengupta. Integrative Biology. 8 (3), 287-301 (2016).

·       Nanometric Thermal Fluctuations of Weakly Confined Biomembranes Measured with Microsecond Time-Resolution, Cornelia Monzel, Daniel Schmidt, Udo Seifert, Ana-Suncana Smith, Rudolf Merkel, and Kheya Sengupta. SoftMatter 12, 4755-4768 (2016).

·       Protein nano-dots in supported lipid bilayers, E. Benard, F. Pi, I. Ozerov, A. Charrier and K. Sengupta, JOVE, accepted (2017).

·       Membrane fluctuations mediate lateral interaction between cadherin bonds, Susanne Fenz, Timo Bihr, Daniel Schmidt, Rudolf Merkel, Udo Seifert, Kheya Sengupta, and Ana-Suncana Smith. Nature Physics, 13, 906–913 (2017).

·       Printing functional protein nano-dots on soft elastomers: from transfer mechanism to cell mechanosensing, Ranime Alameddine, Astrid Wahl, Fuwei Pi, Kaoutar Bouzalmate, Laurent Limozin, Anne Charrier, and Kheya Sengupta. Nano Lett., 2017, 17 (7): 4284–4290.

·       T cells on engineered substrates: the impact of TCR clustering is enhanced by LFA-1 engagement, Emmanuelle Benard, Jacques A. Nunes, Laurent Limozin and Kheya Sengupta. Front. Immunol. 2018, doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02085.

·       Lamellipod Reconstruction by Three-Dimensional Reflection Interference Contrast Nanoscopy (3D-RICN). M-J. Dejardin, A. Hemmerle, A. Sadoun, Y. Hamon, P-H. Puech, K. Sengupta, and L. Limozin Nano Lett., 2018 (DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b03134).

·       Biphasic mechanosensitivity of TCR mediated adhesion of T lymphocytes. A. Wahl, C. Dinet, P. Dillard, P-H. Puech, L. Limozin, and K. Sengupta. PNAS (2019) 116 (13) 5908-5913.

·       Ligand Nanocluster Array Enables Artificial-Intelligence-Based Detection of Hidden Features in T-Cell Architecture, Nano Letters (2021). Nano Lett. 21 (13) 5606–5613 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01073.

·       Integrin-Functionalised Giant Unilamellar Vesicles via Gel-Assisted Formation: Good Practices and Pitfalls, International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2021) DOI: 10.3390/ijms22126335.

·       On the control of dispersion interactions between biological membranes and protein coated biointerfaces, Blackwell, Robert; Hemmerle, Arnaud; Baer, Andreas; Sengupta, Kheya; Smith, Ana-Suncana. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science (2021) DOI: 10.1016/J.JCIS.2021.02.078

·       Physics of Organelle Membrane Bridging via Cytosolic Tethers is Distinct From Cell Adhesion ; Kamal Mohammad Arif, Janeš Josip Augustin, Li Long, Thibaudau Franck, Smith Ana-Sunčana, Sengupta Kheya, Frontiers in Physics 9 (2022).

·       Biomechanics as driver of aggregation of tethers in adherent membranes, Long Li, Mohammad Arif Kamal, Bernd Henning Stumpf, Franck Thibaudau, Kheya Sengupta and Ana-Sunčana Smith.Soft Matter,17, 10101-10107 (2021).

·       May the force be with your (immune) cells: an introduction to traction force microscopy in Immunology. F. Mustapha, K. Sengupta, P-H. Puech.  Frontiers in Immunology (2022). DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.898558.

·       Protocol for measuring weak cellular traction forces using well-controlled ultra-soft polyacrylamide gels, F. Mustapha, K. Sengupta, P-H. Puech. STAR Protocols (2022) DOI: 10.1016/j.xpro.2022.101133.

·       Physics of Organelle Membrane Bridging via Cytosolic Tethers is Distinct From Cell Adhesion Frontiers in Physics (2022) DOI: 10.3389/fphy.2021.750539.

·       First-Principle Coarse-Graining Framework for Scale-Free Bell-Like Association and Dissociation Rates in Thermal and Active Systems, J. A. Janes, C. Monzel, D. Schmidt, R. Merkel, Rudolf, U. Seifert, K. Sengupta, A-S. Smith. Phys. Rev. X (2022) 12 (3) 031030. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevX.12.031030.

·       Manca, F., Eich, G., N’Dao, O. et al. Probing mechanical interaction of immune receptors and cytoskeleton by membrane nanotube extraction. Sci Rep 13, 15652 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42599-9.

·       Sengupta K., Dillard P., Limozin L., Morphodynamics of T-lymphocytes: Scanning to spreading, BiophysJ.2024 10.1016/j.bpj.2024.02.023

Patent: Nano−scale stimulating substrates, Sengupta, Benard, Ozrov, Bedu, Dallaporta, FR1853414 2018, WO/2019/202260. 2019.