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Dr. Kai completed his undergraduate and graduate training at Dalhousie University. As a PhD student in Roy Duncan’s lab, he characterized the function of the actin-binding protein synaptopodin-2, uncovering its novel roles in regulating focal adhesion dynamics and membrane protrusion formation in prostate cancer cell migration. He built expertise in actin dynamics to understand how cells sense and respond to their microenvironment at focal adhesions and subsequently pursued postdoctoral training under Dr. Valerie Weaver, a leading expert in extracellular matrix (ECM) biology and mechanobiology at the University of California, San Francisco. During this time, he spearheaded efforts to determine how ECM mechanics and topography influence cellular actin tension and modulate cancer cell signaling behaviors. After his postdoctoral training, Dr. Kai returned to Canada, where he joined the Lung Health Research Group at the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases at the University of Calgary. His research focuses on ECM dysregulation, which is a hallmark of fibrotic lung diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and asthma. The molecular mechanisms underlying how cells sense and respond to a pathological ECM remain largely unclear. His research employs a combination of biophysical, bioengineering, and biochemical approaches to unravel the role of ECM dysregulation in fibrotic lung diseases. Dr. Kai believes that a greater understanding of the aberrant crosstalk between cells and the ECM could reveal strategies to target mechanically regulated signaling pathways for therapeutic benefit in lung diseases.
Department of Computer Science Master's program. GRE scores are expected for international students.