Welcome to the Agarwal Laboratory (Matrix ‘n Microscopy).

When/Where?

Our lab started in Autumn 2003 and was housed in Bevis Hall, DHLRI, BRT and Postle Hall before finally relocating to the Scott Laboratory (W374 A/B) in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in Autumn 2020.

What do we do?

We think “outside the cell”. Our major research interest is to study extracellular matrix (ECM) biology and cell-matrix interactions. We examine the collagen fibril structure and function in human and animal tissues with a focus on vascular biology and bone remodeling. At the cellular and molecular level we investigate how the collagen receptors, discoidin domain receptors (DDR1 and DDR2), interact with various collagen types and modulate the matrix as well as receptor biology.

We ‘see’ things….at the nano- and micro-scale through atomic force microscopy (AFM), electron microscopy (EM) and fluorescence.  We are employing and developing AFM and EM based methods to understand the magnetic properties of superparamagnetic nanoparticles for biological and energy storage applications. For this we use a mode of AFM called magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and a number of analytical-EM techniques.

Prof. Agarwal also directs an AFM core facility consisting of an integrated Bruker Resolve AFM and Zeiss Observer microscope.