Dr Pradeep Keshavanarayana PhD

Dr Pradeep Keshavanarayana

School of Mathematics
Research Fellow

Contact details

Address
School of Mathematics
Watson Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Pradeep is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the school of mathematics.

He is interested in understanding the response of cells to mechanical stimuli, mechanotransduction, through numerical modelling and experimental observations. He is currently working on modelling the dynamics of gap formation in endothelium.

Other than his current research, he is interested in additive manufacturing and photography

Biography

Pradeep obtained an undergraduate degree in civil engineering at NITK, India. He then studied computational mechanics of materials and structures (COMMAS) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and received a master's degree specialised in Isogeometric Analysis. Later, he did his PhD at the University of Glasgow, UK where his main focus was on studying the reorientation of biological cells, developing numerical models and performing experiments. He then had a brief stint at Agnikul Cosmos, India working on building satellite launch vehicles before starting his current position as a research fellow at the School of Mathematics at the University of Birmingham.

Research

Research themes

  • Single cell mechanics
  • Endothelial cells
  • Mechanical/Numerical modelling
  • Continuum mechanics
  • Finite element methods

Research activity

Endothelial cells form an inner lining of blood vessels, termed endothelium. They are responsible for regulating the movement of molecules through this layer, permeability, by controlling the dynamics of gaps between cells. Recent discoveries have shown that permeability of the endothelium is high in vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and even in cancer. Pradeep is taking a mechanics based approach to understand the dynamics of endothelial cells in 2D and 3D. He is developing continuum-level FE models to simulate the dynamics of gap formation in physiological and pathological conditions.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Keshavanarayana, P & Spill, F 2024, 'A mechanical modeling framework to study endothelial permeability', Biophysical Journal, vol. 123, no. 3, pp. 334-348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2023.12.026

View all publications in research portal