cell mechanics

Mechanobiology and Mechanomedicine: tuning the tension in the life

Baohua Ji (bhji@zju.edu.cn)

Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Cell migration is essential for regulating many biological processes in physiological or pathological conditions, including embryonic development and cancer invasion.

Postdoc Position Available in the Franck Lab

Effective Sept 1, I am looking to fill 1-2 postdoc position in the general area of 3D cell mechanics. 

Candidates should have a strong background in solid mechanics, preferably experimental, with an interest in learning innovative techniques in experimental mechanics including digital volume correlation, 3D Traction Force Microscopy, 3D confocal, multiphoton and Super resolution imaging. 

We are seeking an outstanding PhD candidate to join Mechanics in Biology and Medicine laboratory (MecBioMed.com) as part of a multidisciplinary collaborative project between Dr Emad Moeendarbary at the Department of Mechanical Engineering (University College London, UCL) and Dr Fernando Calvo at the Division of Cancer Biology (Institute of Cancer Research, London).

One postdoctoral position will be available in Fall, 2015 in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY). The research area will focus on using bio-MEMS techniques to create novel cell culture platforms for cell mechanics and mechanobiological studies. Projects may involve studies of the fibrosis diseases, cancer invasion and stem cell differentiation. Some research topics can be found on our website at http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~rgzhao/index.html

We would be pleased to have a contribution from you or from one of the members of your group among the presentations of the symposium entitled
COMPUTATIONAL MECHANICS OF CELLS TISSUES  AND BIOMATERIALS
organized within the joint World Congress on Computational Mechanics and European Conference on Computational Mechanics (http://www.wccm-eccm-ecfd2014.org/frontal/default.asp )
to be held on 20-25 July 2014 in Barcelona (Spain).

Animal cells behave like fluid-filled sponges in response to being mechanically deformed according to new research published in Nature Materials.

Scientists from the London Centre for Nanotechnology at UCL have shown that animal cells behave according to the theory of ‘poroelasticity’ when mechanically stimulated in a way similar to that experienced in organs within the body. The results indicate that the rate of cell deformation in response to mechanical stress is limited by how quickly water can redistribute within the cell interior.

All models are wrong, but some are useful. This famous saying mirrors the situation in cell mechanics as well. It looks like no particular model of the cell deformability can be unconditionally preferred over others and different models reveal different aspects of the mechanical behavior of living cells. The purpose of the present work is to discuss the so-called tensegrity models of the cell cytoskeleton. It seems that the role of the cytoskeleton in the overall mechanical response of the cell was not appreciated until Donald Ingber put a strong emphasis on it.

The annual International Dictyostelium Conference will be held in Baltimore, MD USA from August 14 to 18. Dictyostelium has been extensively used as a model organism for the study of cell mechanics, motility, chemotaxis, cell division and other biological events that involve cell shape change and the mechanical behaviors of cells. In this coming meeting, there will be 70 oral presentations and 100 posters covering above topics.

http://dicty11.dictybase.org

Chair in Cell Mechanics, University of Exeter

The University of Exeter
is significantly expanding its capacity in Science and Engineering, with 275 million
GBP (approx 440M USD) capital spend on campus and 80M GBP (130M USD) on new academic staff.

The university seeks to employ two new chairs in i) cell mechanics and ii) physical cell biology. Research areas of interest for the chair in cell mechanics might include computational fluid or solid mechanics.

The University of Exeter will shortly announce several new chairs it is seeking to fill.

The chairs are full tenured chairs and in the following areas -

Cell Mechanics (two chairs, one nominally experimental and one nominally theoretical).

Structural Dynamics, possibly with an aerospace flavour.

If you are interested, or know someone who might be, please contact me (c.w.smith-at-exeter.ac.uk) for an informal discussion.

Regards,

Chris Smith

A postdoctoral position is available for a highly
motivated candidate to study the physical principles of cell motility in the
Biophysics Group of the Interfaces & Complex Fluids Lab at the University
of Mons in collaboration with the Bio- and Soft Matter Group of the Institute
of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences at the Université catholique de Louvain.

We wrote a book chapter about the role of the actin cytoskeleton in mechanosensation. The book title is Mechanosensitivity and Mechanotransduction, edited by A, Kamkin and I. Kiseleva and published by Springer-Verlag, New York.". 

In this chapter, we try to integrate mechanics, materials science, biophysics and biology together to give a most updated view of this field. We also want to introduce the feedback loop concept to mechanicians who are interested in studying biological systems.

I attached the pdf version and the follwoing is the subtitles of the chapter. 

We present an application of fluid-structure interaction analysis to the mechanics of red blood cells. For more information see the following link:

http://www.adina.com/newsgH60.shtml

Please recall that we offer a special academic package, for research and teaching, for university users. For more information see:

http://www.adina.com/educ.shtml