cellular mechanics

Postdoctoral Positions at the University of Pittsburgh in Cellular Mechanics and Biophysics of Morphogenesis

Recent developments in computational cell and biomolecular mechanics have provided valuable insights into the mechanical properties of cells, subcellular components and biomolecules, while simultaneously complementing new experimental techniques used for deciphering the structure–function paradigm in living cells. These computational approaches have direct implications in understanding the state of human health and the progress of disease and can therefore aid immensely in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Dear Colleague,



We want to draw your attention to and encourage your participation in a special session on Multiscale Modeling and Simulation of the thirteenth Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB), to be held January 4-8, 2008, on the Big Island of Hawaii. PSB is an international, multidisciplinary conference with high impact on the theory and application of computational methods in problems of biological significance. 

The molecular building blocks of a cell include:

This is a model of a single semiflexible polymer chain under sustained tension. The model captures two key features of the cytoskeletal rheology: a) the power-law behavior; and b) the dependence of the power-law on mechanical prestress. The model also reveals the underlying mechanisms.

The essence of mechanobiology is, probably, the interrelation between mechanical and biochemical factors.  An exciting example of such phenomenon is signaling associated with the interaction between the cell and extracellular matrix (EM).  While some purely biochemical pathways initiated in the area of contact of the cell and EM are known, there are interesting ideas how the mechanical forces, stresses and strains can be involved too. This view goes back to works of Donald Ingber's group in the 90s that showed how perturbations of the adhesion area as a whole and of an individual integrin result in deformation of the cell nucleus. Interestingly, a distinguished oncologist at Johns Hopkins, Donald Coffey, published similar experimental results about the same time, and he also demonstrated that the observed cytoskeleton/nucleus interaction is different in tumor cells. There are several separate pieces of the puzzle that have been resolved: mechanical forces are generated at focal adhesions, the cytoskeleton is involved, nucleus deforms, gene expression changes as a result of perturbation of the adhesions, however, the whole picture of the interrelated mechanical and biochemical factors has yet to be understood. We recently published some results on this topic in the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering (Jean et al., 2004 and 2005). I was glad to find an interest in the same problem from some participants of this website (e.g., N. Wang, Z. Suo,   Long-distance propagation of forces in a cell, 2005 and P.R. LeDuc and R.M. Bellin, Nanoscale Intracellular Organization and Functional Architecture Mediating Cellular Behavior, 2006). This aspect of mechanotransduction is important for many areas beyond mechanics such as cancer, wound healing, cell adhesion and motility, effect of surface micro- and nanopatterning, etc.

What might be the differences, if there is any, between mechanical signaling and chemical signaling in a living cell?

Cells function based on a complex set of interactions that control pathways resulting in ultimate cell fates including proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. The interworkings of his immensely dense network of intracellular molecules are influenced by more than random protein and nucleic acid distribution where their interactions culminate in distinct cellular function.