Cell-material chemomechanics: Pulling it all together
The interface between biological cells and the extracellular environment is a dynamic exchange of chemical and mechanical cues. Though much progress has been made to measure, model, and even make synthetic analogues of cell-matrix and cell-fluid interactions, several key questions remain. Here, we will discuss recent progress in understanding how the mechanical and chemical properties of extracellular environments can modulate cell behavior, ranging from kinetics of adhesive ligand-receptor complexes in tissue cells, to the force generated by such adherent cells, to the migration and function of tissue progenitor cells, to the mechanical signature of such cells when resuspended for systemic delivery. Through computational modeling, in vitro analyses, and in vivo studies we consider the current understanding and open challenges to use the chemomechanical coupling between cells and the surrounding environment to engineer desired outcomes.
Bio
Van Vliet is Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Biological Engineering at MIT. She earned her Sc.B. in Materials Science & Engineering from Brown University (1998) and her Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from MIT (2002). Van Vliet leads the Laboratory for Material Chemomechanics and directed the MIT Nanomechanical Technology Laboratory (2004-2012), a multiuser research facility that includes training of student and staff researchers. She currently leads the Singapore-MIT Alliance in Research & Technology (SMART) BioSystems & Micromechanics IRG, a team spanning Singapore and MIT that invents and develops new technology platforms for diagnostics and treatment of cell & tissue disease. Van Vliet’s laboratory studies material chemomechanics: the dynamic coupling between mechanical & chemical states at material interfaces. To identify the fundamental mechanisms of such interactions at the molecular scale, her group develops experiments and computational simulations that span material mechanics, chemistry, physics, and biology. Van Vliet seeks to predict how mechanical stiffness and force can alter molecular interactions, and vice versa. The motivating example of this research is the interface between biological cells and their microenvironments, including the matrix and surrounding crowded fluids.