Amit Singh

Dr Amit Singh, Assistant Professor

Following my PhD at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru, India, I joined Institut Curie in Paris as a postdoctoral research, where I worked on the mechanics of cells and tissues. I then joined the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, where I focused on understanding electrohydraulic interactions in cellular and tissue contexts. Since May 2025, I have been an Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick, where I continue to explore the physics of morphogenesis with an emphasis on bioelectric and mechanical signaling.

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What shapes us? From the contours of a leaf to the structure of a human heart, the process by which biological form arises—known as morphogenesis—has fascinated scientists for centuries. I am especially intrigued by how electrical signals, like those that power our nerves and muscles, help shape living tissues and organs during development. My research seeks to uncover how these invisible forces guide growth and organization, using physics-informed mathematical modeling to make sense of nature's design principles. I aim to understand the rules of the game well enough that we can one day predict—and perhaps even control—how life builds itself from the ground up.

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Amit Singh

Dr Amit Singh, Assistant Professor

Email: Amit.K.S.Singh@warwick.ac.uk

ORCID | Google Scholar

Plain English

Summary

My research investigates how living tissues build and maintain their complex structures not just through genetic instructions, but through a rich interplay of physical signals, particularly bioelectricity. Bioelectric signals, arising from ion flows across cell membranes, are known to guide development, regeneration, and even pattern repair. I explore how these electrical cues work together with mechanical forces to coordinate large-scale tissue behaviors, such as growth, pattern formation, and structural stability. A key aim of my work is to develop a multiscale understanding of morphogenesis, connecting molecular and cellular processes like ion channel activity and membrane mechanics to tissue level behaviors.

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At the heart of this work is physics-informed mathematical modeling, where the goal is not only to simulate biological systems, but to understand the fundamental mechanisms. I create models that integrate electrical, mechanical, and biochemical feedback, often using ideas from soft matter physics and continuum mechanics.

Selected publications:

Liu J, Nerli E, Duclut C, Vishen AS, Berbee N, Kaufmann S, Ponce C, Arrenberg AB, Julicher F, and Mateus R. Injury-induced electrochemical coupling triggers regenerative cell proliferation. bioRxiv, (2025) (preprint).

Vishen AS, Prost J, and Sens, P. Quantitative comparison of cell-cell detachment force in different experimental setups, Euro. Phys. J. E, 47, 22, (2024).

Venkova L, Vishen AS, Lembo S, … , Sens P, and Piel M. A mechano-osmotic feedback couples cell volume to the rate of cell deformation. Elife, 11, e72381 (2022).

Vishen AS, Heat dissipation rate in a nonequilibrium viscoelastic medium. J. Stat. Mech., 6, 063201 (2020).

Vishen AS, Prost J, and Rao M, Breakdown of effective temperature, power law inter-actions, and self-propulsion in a momentum-conserving active fluid. Phys. Rev. E, 100, 062602 (2019).

Vishen AS, Rupprecht J-F, Shivashankar GV, Prost J, and Rao M, Soft inclusion in a confined fluctuating active gel. Phy. Rev. E, 97, 032602 (2018).