Dennis Discher

External Advisory Board Member

Professor Discher is the Robert D. Bent Professor and Director of Physical Sciences Oncology Center/Project @ Penn at University of Pennsylvania. The Discher lab has sought to contribute across topics in cell, tissue, and molecular bioengineering particularly in mechanobiology and materials biology. The lab discovered matrix elasticity effects on stem cell differentiation (Cell 2006) and nucleus mechanosensing (Science 2013).

Recent efforts have focused on the mechanobiology of genetic changes in cancer and engineering of macrophages against solid tumors (Nat BME 2023). The latter followed molecularly detailed studies of ‘foreign’ versus ‘self’ recognition (Science 2013) that were motivated by delivery studies with block copolymer nano-assemblies (Science 2002). Dozens of students and fellows from the lab now have prominent positions in academia or industry around the world.

Discher is an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering, the US National Academy of Medicine, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he serves on Editorial Boards of Science, Molecular Biology of the Cell, and PNAS Nexus, among other journals.