Kolade Adebowale, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering
University of California, San Diego
Seminar Information
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains a devastating disease, with high mortality and recurrence rates. Furthermore, patients have a three-fold risk of suicidal ideation and death by suicide compared to the general population, partly due to treatment side effects like facial disfigurement, impaired eating/speaking, and profound depression. HNSCC exhibits profound heterogeneity in tumor invasion and immune composition that is not fully explained by genetic drivers alone. Our preliminary data identify matrix viscoelasticity as a key biophysical regulator of these processes in HPV⁻ HNSCC. Using 3D organoid models and engineered collagen matrices, we find that viscoelasticity promotes sustained nuclear localization of YAP during invasive organoid behavior, linking time-dependent matrix mechanics to persistent mechano-signaling. We further show that matrix viscoelasticity modulates stromal remodeling dynamics, altering collagen architecture in ways that support aggressive invasion. Importantly, these viscoelastic cues also govern immune interactions, as we observe enhanced neutrophil recruitment in viscoelastic matrices characteristic of HPV⁻ tumors. Together, these data support a model in which matrix viscoelasticity coordinates YAP-dependent invasion, stromal remodeling, and neutrophil-dominated inflammation in HPV⁻ HNSCC, establishing matrix mechanics as a critical and previously underappreciated regulator of tumor-immune crosstalk.
Dr. Adebowale is currently an Assistant Professor in Bioengineering and a Moores Cancer Center Faculty member. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2021 and completed his postdoctoral training in 2025. While at Stanford, Dr. Adebowale received the NSF GRFP, a Stanford Graduate Fellowship, an NIH F31 grant, and was in the Stanford Sarafan ChEM-H Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program. At Harvard, Dr. Adebowale was awarded an NSF Ascend – MPS postdoctoral fellowship and was an NIH K99/R00 scholar. Dr. Adebowale’s main research areas are in biomaterials, mechanobiology, and immunology. He seeks to integrate engineering design principles in cancer immunology to enable rational engineering and prediction of effective, next-generation immune cell therapies.