Nikhil Jain is a bioengineer with strong expertise in a wide range of techniques applied to address fundamental and translational biological problems. He considers himself an interdisciplinary researcher as he has worked at the interface of bioengineering, mechanobiology, and epigenetics.
During his Ph.D., by sculpting single cells of varied shapes, sizes, and aspect ratios, he has shown how the geometrical constraints impinge on nuclear morphology, actomyosin contractility, chromatin compaction, and thus gene expression. By generating multi-dimensional plots, he linked specific gene clusters with distinct cell geometries. Using high-resolution imaging and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, he also provided the underpinning mechanisms of geometry guided transcriptional regulation.
During his postdoc period, he has contributed to the formulation of a new paradigm of inflammatory gene expression regulation of macrophages by mechanical forces, which exist in healthy and diseased tissues. He developed novel bioengineered surfaces to apply confinement on single macrophages, which tunes the transcriptional programs and thereby alter the inflammatory state of macrophages.
In 2017 and then in 2018, he was awarded SNF and EMBO research visit grants respectively to spend time at the Tel-Aviv University, Israel to use novel epi-imaging techniques to understand changes in DNA epigenetics modifications during macrophage inflammation.
The results of his research were published in major journals: Nature Materials, PNAS, NAR, Epigenetics, etc. His area of mechanoimmunology includes immunology, age-related disease, material sciences, and bioengineering. In 2019, he was promoted to the position of Junior Group Leader at the Institute of Translational Medicine at ETH Zurich and was awarded an SNF SPARK grant to characterize changes in mechanics of aged immune cells and how to tune their hyperinflammatory activated state.
In 2021, Nikhil moved to the University of Birmingham with a goal to establish a novel transdisciplinary research field of mechanobiology, bioengineering, inflammation, and ageing and ultimately, achieve fundamental and translational success targeting human ageing processes and associated inflammatory diseases.