Chemical and Biological Sciences

Assistant Professor

S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences

Kolkata, India, 2026-present

Postdoctoral Fellow

James Franck Institute, University of Chicago

Chicago, USA, 2023-2026

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, USA, 2020-2023

Postdoctoral Research Associate

University College London

London, UK, 2019-2020

PhD

Raman Research Institute (JNU), 2012-2019

MSc

IIT Madras, 2010-2012

My research focuses on the physics of living matter: understanding how biological systems self-organize, generate forces, and adapt across molecular, cellular, and tissue scales. I use theoretical modeling and computational simulations to address questions in:

• Cytoskeletal dynamics and mechanics: how actomyosin networks remodel under non-equilibrium forces to drive tissue morphogenesis and shape changes
• Biomolecular condensates: how membrane-less organelles form, grow, and organize within the mechanically complex environment of the cell
• Physical learning in biological systems: how living matter encodes memory and adapts through purely physical mechanisms, without neurons or a brain
• Organelle size regulation: how cells robustly control the size and number of intracellular structures despite molecular noise and competition for shared resources

1. Actomyosin pulsation and flows in an active elastomer with turnover and network remodelling

Deb S Banerjee, Akankshi Munjal, Thomas Lecuit, Madan Rao

Nat. Commun. 8, 1121 (2017)

2. Filament Nucleation Tunes Mechanical Memory in Active Polymer Networks

Vikrant Yadav, Deb S Banerjee, A Pasha Tabatabai, David R Kovar, Taeyoon Kim, Shiladitya Banerjee, Michael P Murrell

Advanced Functional Materials 29 (49), 1905243 (2019)

3. Size-regulated symmetry breaking in reaction-diffusion models of developmental transitions

Jake C Scoones, Deb S Banerjee*, Shiladitya Banerjee

Cells 9 (7), 1646 (2020)

4. Size regulation of multiple organelles competing for a limiting subunit pool

Deb S Banerjee, Shiladitya Banerjee

PLoS Comput. Biol. 18 (6) (2022)

5. Emergence and maintenance of variable-length actin filaments in a limiting pool of building blocks

Deb S Banerjee, Shiladitya Banerjee

Biophys. J. 121 (12) (2022)

6. Active ploughing through a compressible viscoelastic fluid: Unjamming and emergent non-reciprocity

Jyoti P Banerjee, Rituparno Mandal, Deb S Banerjee, Shashi Thutupalli, Madan Rao

Nat. Commun. 13, 4533 (2022)

7. Membrane Tension Induces F-actin Reorganization and Flow in a Biomimetic Model Cortex

R Sakamoto, Deb S Banerjee, V Yadav, S Chen, M Gardel, C Sykes, S Banerjee, MP Murrell

Commun. Biol. 6, 325 (2023)

8. Catalytic growth in a shared enzyme pool ensures robust control of centrosome size

Deb S Banerjee, Shiladitya Banerjee

eLife 12: RP92203 (2023)

9. Growth-induced collective bending and kinetic trapping of cytoskeletal filaments

Deb S Banerjee, Simon L Freedman, Michael P Murrell, Shiladitya Banerjee

Cytoskeleton 81 (8), 409–419 (2024)

10. Interplay of condensate material properties and chromatin heterogeneity governs nuclear condensate ripening

Deb S Banerjee, Tafadzwa Chigumira, Rachel M Lackner, Josiah C Kratz, David M Chenoweth, Shiladitya Banerjee, Huaiying Zhang

eLife 13: RP101777 (2024)

11. Design principles of organelle size control: from single to multi-organelle systems

Deb S Banerjee, Shiladitya Banerjee

Current Opinion in Cell Biology 95: 102533 (2025)

12. Learning via mechanosensitivity and activity in cytoskeletal networks

Deb S Banerjee, Martin J Falk, Margaret L Gardel, Aleksandra M Walczak, Thierry Mora, Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan

PRX Life (2025)

13. Excitability and travelling waves in renewable active matter

Abhishek M, Ankit Dhanuka, Deb S Banerjee, Madan Rao

Phys. Rev. E 112, 045433 (2025)

14. Contractile to extensile transitions and mechanical adaptability enabled by activity in cytoskeletal structures

Alexandra Lamtyugina, Deb S Banerjee*, Yuqing Qiu, Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan

Biophysical Journal (2026)

*equal contribution