Principal Investigator Roger Kamm
Recent work has demonstrated the pervasive role of mechanics in biology. The most prominent examples include matrix stiffness influencing stem cell lineage and tumor progression, axonal tension regulating presynaptic vesicle clustering, and stiffness gradients guiding migrating cells. Mechanotransduction, the mechanism underlying these cellular responses to mechanical stimuli, has been studied in detail for the past decade and offers a new paradigm for directing the form and function of integrated cellular systems.
Over the past 5 years, we developed various microfluidic platforms for mimicking the three dimensional microenvironment and investigating the role of mechanical stimuli, such as interstitial flow, cyclic strain, and ECM stiffness gradients, on cellular processes including cell migration, angiogenesis, and differentiation.
Recently, we have drawn upon our understanding of mechanobiology to direct the function of multicellular systems. For example, we extended our angiogenesis model to build functional vascular networks in vitro, and we directed stem cell differentiation into cardiomyocytes by applying cyclic strain. As we increase the complexity of synthetic modules toward building biological machines, mechanics will play a more significant role, particularly in the engineering of neurons and myocytes for sensing and actuation. We will employ mechanical engineering as a tool to address this complexity while simultaneously extending our understanding of mechanotransduction.