CAREER: Microscale Mechanobiology of Actomyosin Stress Fiber Bundles: An Integrated Program for Research and Education in Cellular Bioengineering

职业：肌动球蛋白应力纤维束的微观力学生物学：细胞生物工程研究和教育的综合计划

• 批准号: 1055965
• 负责人: Sanjay Kumar
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1055965&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Microscale; Mechanobiology; Actomyosin; Stress

The objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award is to use a combination of biophotonic, genetic, and computational tools to investigate the mechanics of actomyosin stress fibers and the underlying signaling mechanisms that control these properties. Stress fibers are micrometer-scale, contractile structural cables that traverse across living cells and enable cells to generate tractional forces against their surroundings, a process critical to locomotion and maintenance of tissue architecture. Studies conducted under this award will apply molecular biological tools to manipulate the concentrations and activities of specific molecules within stress fibers and use laser nanosurgery and related microtechnologies to investigate the contributions of these molecules to stress fiber function. In parallel, a multi-scale computational model will be developed to relate the activities of these molecular components to stress fiber mechanics and overall cellular mechanobiological properties. If successful, these studies would add significantly to the field's understanding of the molecular regulation of cytoskeletal contractility and represent a tight integration of experiment and computation. The knowledge gained from these efforts will also enhance the field's ability to manipulate cell and tissue structure and function by revealing "design principles" for cell structure and mechanics. This in turn may help drive the evolution of systems for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and other bio-interfacial technologies. The educational plan focuses on course development in cellular bioengineering at the undergraduate and graduate level as well as the creation of partnerships between the awardee's institution and two non-PhD-focused bioengineering programs for BS- and MS-level curriculum development. Both initiatives will involve extensive sharing of course material and discussions of how to effectively incorporate cellular bioengineering concepts into undergraduate and pre-professional training.

这个教师早期职业发展（Career）计划奖的目标是使用生物光子、遗传和计算工具的组合来研究肌动球蛋白应激纤维的机制和控制这些特性的潜在信号机制。应力纤维是微米级的、可收缩的结构电缆，它穿过活细胞，使细胞对周围环境产生牵引力，这是一个对组织结构的运动和维持至关重要的过程。根据该奖项进行的研究将应用分子生物学工具来控制应力纤维中特定分子的浓度和活性，并使用激光纳米手术和相关微技术来研究这些分子对应力纤维功能的贡献。同时，将开发一个多尺度计算模型，将这些分子组分的活动与应力纤维力学和整体细胞力学生物学特性联系起来。如果成功，这些研究将显著增加该领域对细胞骨架收缩性分子调控的理解，并代表实验和计算的紧密结合。从这些努力中获得的知识也将通过揭示细胞结构和力学的“设计原则”来增强该领域操纵细胞和组织结构和功能的能力。这反过来可能有助于推动组织工程、再生医学和其他生物界面技术系统的发展。该教育计划侧重于本科和研究生阶段的细胞生物工程课程开发，以及在获奖者所在机构和两个非博士阶段的生物工程项目之间建立合作伙伴关系，用于学士和硕士阶段的课程开发。这两项倡议都将涉及广泛的课程材料共享和讨论如何有效地将细胞生物工程概念纳入本科和专业前培训。