Sravanti Uppaluri

Areas of Interest & Expertise

  • Developmental Biology
  • Biophysics and Quantitative Biology
  • Soft Matter

Biography

Sravanti’s training and research background span biology, bioengineering and biophysics.  Her undergraduate education was in biology at the McMaster University, Canada. Subsequently, she completed a masters in bioengineering at the University of Toronto. During her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Goettingen, Germany, she used ideas and tools from soft condensed matter physics to understand the motility and rheology of unicellular parasites. Following this, she performed research at Princeton University as a postdoctoral fellow in developmental biology.

At Azim Premji University, she works primarily with undergraduate students to pursue questions that are broadly in the areas of developmental and regenerative biology. Along with the team she conducts experiments to ask how organisms establish a body plan by cell sorting, what kinds of environments promote growth and regeneration and how interspecies interactions influence individual development and populations.

With other faculty members in the Biology group of the university she has co-authored a free online introductory biology textbook called i Think Biology (https://​ithinkbi​ol​o​gy​.in/). This unique textbook utilises a case-study-based approach with examples from India, that is accessible, self-contained, and prioritises essential capacities over content.

Courses

Publications

Journal Articles

  • Ganguly, A., Uma, D., Mallik, P., Uppaluri, S., & Srinivasan, T. (2025). Rethinking science and mathematics pedagogy. Current Science, 128(9), 1 – 6.
  • Gowrishankar, K., & Uppaluri, S. (2023). An Introduction to Phase Separation in Cell Biology. Resonance, 28(2), 229 – 245.
  • Uppaluri, S., & Kanchamreddy, H. (2020). Diving into the world of regeneration. i wonder…, 45 – 47.
  • Shivers J, Uppaluri S, Brangwynne CP, Microfluidic immobilization and subcellular imaging of developing Caenorhabditis elegans. Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, (in Press) 2017 **Work with Undergraduate Mentee
  • Thutupalli S*, Uppaluri S*, Constable G, Levin S, Stone H, Tarnita C, Brangwynne CP, Farming and Public Goods Production in C elegans, PNAS 114(9):2289 – 2294, 2017 *Equal contribution
  • Uppaluri S, Weber, SC, and Brangwynne, CP. Hierarchical size scaling during multicellular growth and development, Cell Reports, 345(17), 2016
  • Uppaluri S, Brangwynne CP. A size threshold governs Caenorhabditis elegans developmental progression. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 282: 20151283, 2015. 
     
  • Gilpin W, Uppaluri S, Brangwynne CP. (2015, Apr 21). Worms under pressure: bulk mechanical properties of C. elegans are independent of the cuticle. Biophysical Journal. 108(8):1887- 98. **Work with Undergraduate Mentee
  • Hochstetter A, Stellamanns E, Deshpande S, Uppaluri S, Engstler M, Pfohl T(2015). Microfluidics-based single cell analysis reveals drug-dependent motility changes in trypanosomes. Lab Chip(15):1961 – 1968, 
     
  • Stellamanns E, Uppaluri S, Hochstetter A, Heddergott N, Engstler M, Pfohl T. ( 2014, Oct 1). Optical trapping reveals propulsion forces, power generation and motility efficiency of the unicellular parasites ​“Trypanosoma brucei brucei”. Scientific Reports, 4(6515). 
     
  • Heddergott N, Krueger N, Wei A, Stellamanns E, Uppaluri S, Pfohl T, Engstler M. Trypanosome Motion Represents an Adaptation to the Crowded Environment of the Vertebrate Bloodstream. PLoS Pathogens, 8(11): e1003023, 2012. 
     
  • Uppaluri S, Heddergott N, Stellamanns E, Herminghaus S, Engstler M, Pfohl T. (Sep 19, 2012). Flow loading induces oscillatory trajectories in bloodstream parasites. Biophysical Journal. 103(6):1162 – 9. 
     
  • Uppaluri S, Nagler J, Stellamanns E, Heddergott N, Herminghaus S, Engstler M, Pfohl T. Impact of microscopic motility on the swimming behaviour of parasites: stiffer trypanosomes are more directional. PLoS Computational Biology, 7(6): e1002058, 2011. 
     

Featured article 
 

Zaburdaev V, Uppaluri S, Friedrich R, Engstler M, Pfohl T, Stark H. (2011 , May)Langevin dynamics deciphers the motility pattern of swimming parasites. Physical Review Letters, 106(20), p. 208103, .

Book Chapter

Engstler M, Heddergott N, Krger T, Stellamanns E, Uppaluri S, Pfohl T. (2012). African Trypanosomes Are A Model System For Functional Analysis Of Microbial Motility. In Nature Inspired Fluid Mechanics, edited by C.Tropea and H Bleckmann, Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Design (NNFM), 119, 43 – 61.