Cellular Mechanics and Interactions

Cells are not passive occupants of their surroundings; they constantly push against, pull on, and sense the physical properties of the extracellular matrix — the fibrous protein scaffold that fills the space between cells in living tissue. When the matrix is stiffer or softer than normal, cells respond by changing shape, gene expression, and fate, a process called mechanotransduction, which turns out to govern decisions as consequential as whether a stem cell becomes bone or fat, and whether a tumor cell gains the ability to migrate and invade. Researchers in this area work to decode exactly how cells convert mechanical signals into biochemical ones — through the cytoskeleton and membrane-bound receptors — and how those signals can be deliberately tuned to grow functional tissue in the lab or disrupt cancer progression. Central open questions include how cells integrate competing mechanical cues across different timescales, and how to design synthetic matrices that faithfully replicate the dynamic stiffness of real tissue rather than its static snapshot.

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74,272

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2,558,475

Keywords

Extracellular MatrixCell MechanicsMechanotransductionStem CellsCytoskeletonTissue Engineering