Mechanobiological regulation of cell and tissue architecture by actomyosin stress fiber bundles

肌动球蛋白压迫纤维束，还是？应力纤维,?是沿着活细胞底部的缆索状结构，使细胞能够产生对抗环境的牵引力，这种功能对细胞结构控制和迁移至关重要。本课程旨在研究应力纤维在细胞和组织结构和力学的调节中所起的作用。有两个关键的项目目标。第一个目标是阐明细胞外基质刚度和应力纤维弹性之间的关系。这里的关键方法包括制造具有明确机械和生化特性的细胞培养基质，以及使用飞秒激光烧蚀和其他先进的光学成像方法来探测活细胞中的单个应力纤维。第二个目标是研究在二维和三维培养中，单个应力纤维在控制多细胞结构的结构和力学方面所起的作用。该计划将有助于我们对活细胞用来定义和修改其结构的机制的基本理解，这些结构和行为对正常组织发育和疾病都是至关重要的。这个项目也将为机械力在控制细胞生理学中所起的作用提供机械洞察力，这反过来可能有助于更合理的细胞和组织工程系统设计策略。此外，本课程有两个主要的教育目标，包括开发研究生水平的课程和组织一个区域研究研讨会，主要是来自本科院校的教师和学生，都是在细胞和组织机械转导的主题领域。

Actomyosin stress fiber bundles, or ?stress fibers,? are cable-like structures that run along the base of a living cell and enable the cell to generate tractional forces against its environment, a functionality that is critical to cell structure control and migration. This program seeks to investigate the role played by stress fibers in the regulation of cell and tissue structure and mechanics. There are two key program goals. The first goal is to elucidate the relationship between extracellular matrix rigidity and stress fiber elasticity. Key approaches here include fabrication of cell culture substrates with defined mechanical and biochemical properties, and use of femtosecond laser ablation and other advanced optical imaging methods to probe individual stress fibers in living cells. The second goal is to investigate the role played by individual stress fibers in controlling the architecture and mechanics of multicellular structures, both in two-dimensional and three-dimensional culture.This program will contribute to our fundamental understanding of mechanisms that living cells use to define and modify their structure, behaviors that are central both to normal tissue development and disease. This program will also provide mechanistic insight into the increasingly-appreciated role played by mechanical force in controlling cell physiology, which in turn may contribute to more rational design strategies for cell and tissue engineering systems. In addition, there are two key educational goals of this program, including development of a graduate-level course and organization of a regional research symposium featuring faculty and students from predominantly undergraduate institutions, both in the subject area of cell and tissue mechanotransduction.