Lani Lee

Lani Lee is a graduate student in mechanical engineering investigating physical mechanisms of aging at the cellular scale through mechanical characterization and computational analyses. Aging alters cytoplasmic stiffness, intracellular motion, and contractile behavior, yet isolating these mechanisms requires integrating experimental measurement with quantitative processing. She discovered that aged cells exhibit increased stiffness and decreased motion despite exerting larger internal forces, revealing critical functional changes in cellular transport. Using MATLAB, Lani developed custom analysis pipelines for processing high-dimensional data from optical tweezers, confocal microscopy, and force spectrum microscopy. As a MathWorks Fellow, Lani will advance similar frameworks to study three-dimensional cell-extracellular matrix interactions and tissue-level contractility mapping. She will leverage MATLAB’s Image Processing and Signal Processing Toolboxes to automate feature extraction and to understand aging-dependent mechanical degradation. Her work has the potential to establish quantitative design principles for engineered tissues and enable the early detection of age-related dysfunction.