Blog posts

Cellular and Molecular Mechanics

I was invited by Dr. Zhigang Suo to write a short piece on “Cellular and Molecular Mechanics”. I am writing this informally to introduce this subject matter rather than talk in vernacular such as mechanotransduction, phosphorylation, etc. I have more formal papers if someone is interested in more detailed discussions on this subject area. This is a field in which I have been working for over a decade now and I find it more exciting every day. The question always is how does mechanics affect biological processes. This is a very interdisciplinary subject matter as mechanists, engineers, physicists, chemists, and biologists have been investigating this process from various perspectives. I am obviously not the first to study this process. For most of us, it is realized from an empirical perspective that mechanics matters to biology, but exactly how mechanics specifically alters biochemistry continues to be highly debated today. Mechanics of course matters in many physiological areas. Your blood flows, your heart pumps, your bone and muscle feel mechanics. Not only does the body experience mechanical stimulation, but it reacts biochemically to it. A wonderful example is when people go into space (NASA) for long periods of time. The bone in one’s body begins to resorb in a similar response mode to what one experiences in aging (osteoporosis). This is primarily due to just the change in the gravity (mechanics). Other diseases are related to these issues including the two biggest killers: heart disease and cancer. While biomechanics on this scale has been studied for awhile (Leonardo Da Vinci, who was interested in mechanics, also wrote one of the first texts on anatomy), the movement to the cellular and molecular scales has brought a tremendous amount of excitement. I consider the cell as one of the ultimate smart materials exhibiting these characteristics. The cell has evolved over millions of years and is designed better than almost any system that we can personally build. Just as the biological eye provides a beautiful template for optics based lenses, much can be learned about building technology (“nanotechnology” and “microtechnology”) through examining the behavior of cells and molecules.

The Fourth China-Japan-Korea Joint Symposium on Optimization of Structural and Mechanical Systems will be held in Kunming, China, November 6–9, 2006.

http://sail.dlut.edu.cn/cjkosm4/Home/Index.htm

Recent advances of computer technology have given powerful practical tools to structural and mechanical designs. Optimal design is one of such area where various theories and methodologies are well developed. It is, however, lacking general interests among field designers and engineers. Innovative optimal design techniques and new applications are yet to be developed. Following the successful first CJK-OSM1 in Xian, China in 1999, second (CJK-OSM2) in Busan, Korea in 2002 and the third (CJK-OSM3) in Kanazawa, Japan in 2004, as agreed among participants in the symposium, the fourth CJK-OSM symposium will be held in Kunming, China during Nov. 6th -Nov. 9th, 2006. As before this will be a forum for exchange of recent research ideas and fostering new developments and new applications. Reflecting current interests from various fields, several new topics are included. The scope is, however, not limited to those listed.

This symposium will be part of the 2007 ASME Applied Mechanics and Materials Conference, to be held in the University of Texas in Austin, in June 3-6, 2007.

The 9th US National Congress on Computational Mechanics will feature a student presentation competition. This competition continues in the format pursued at the recent World Congress in Los Angeles. It is open to students who have an abstract accepted for presentation at the Congress.