Professor Padmini Rangamani’s research is focused on understanding the design principles of biological systems. 

Her long-term research goal is to understand the control of cell shape by analysing biological membranes and their interaction with proteins and the cytoskeleton using principles from transport phenomena. This is a unifying framework that brings together, mechanics of the membrane, membrane-bound proteins, and their coupled interactions. Her work uses a combination of novel mechanical theories and computational approaches to simulate many aspects of cellular membranes, in collaboration with experimentalists.