Science and Technology Center for Engineering Mechano-Biology

工程机械生物学科学技术中心(CEMB)汇集了来自不同学科和机构的顶尖研究人员，在生物学、力学和工程学的交叉领域进行调查、理解和创新。该中心的使命是发现分子和细胞通信的支配原理，为设计新的和强大的基于细胞的设备提供智力基础和材料，并培训学生学习工程机械生物学的多语言基础，使他们成为能够探索和利用这些相互联系以影响社会的创新领导者。该奖项支持一个由研究人员和教育工作者组成的创新网络，以调查细胞、它们的环境和作用于它们的力量之间的基本关系。该团队将在新兴的机械生物学学科中培训新一代科学家和工程师，并将与工业界合作，将新的科学发现转化为产品和解决方案，以促进国家的健康和繁荣。工程机械生物学专注于结构、力学和功能之间的相互作用，将对我们构建和修复组织、器官和植入物的能力产生重大影响；使植物适应不断变化的环境；治疗炎症和纤维化；了解运动、活动和创伤的影响；以及设计优化的合成和仿生材料。这一跨学科领域将使生物功能方面的基本发现成为可能，并推动在多个尺度上对动植物结构进行讯问和指导的尖端技术的发展。项目将跨越作用力的长度和时间范围：从单个分子到超分子复合体、细胞、组织和整个生物体，从几毫秒到几小时、几周或几个月。主要的研究工作将集中在三个综合研究推力(IRTS)上，需要跨学科的新接口，并按照细胞的分层观点进行组织，从机械响应分子到到达细胞外利基的信号通路。推力1：生物分子和纳米结构的机械生物学将表征和设计蛋白质和分子，使检测和操纵蛋白质、支架和细胞的Pn和nm机械响应性成为可能，以探测或产生日益复杂的工程化机械生物试剂、材料和系统。推力2：细胞和信号的机械生物学将阐明细胞如何通过细胞骨架、细胞核和周围基质之间的反馈对机械力做出动态反应，揭示机械信号有助于细胞间沟通的方式，并发现细胞如何在长度和时间尺度上区分和整合机械信号。推力3：组织、材料和微环境的机械生物学将在植物和动物中识别基于基质的机械线索，并研究块状凝胶、纤维网络和工程微型设备的制造。这将导致具有机械响应特性的材料的产生，以及研究机械转导中的结构和生物物理线索的新手段。

The Science and Technology Center for Engineering Mechano-Biology (CEMB) brings together leading researchers from a diverse group of disciplines and institutions to investigate, understand, and innovate at the intersection of biology, mechanics, and engineering. The mission of this Center is to discover the governing principles of molecular and cellular communication, provide the intellectual foundations and materials for engineering new and powerful cell-based devices, and to train students in the multilingual foundations of engineering mechano-biology preparing them to be innovative leaders able to explore and exploit these interconnections to impact society. This award supports an innovative network of researchers and educators to investigate the fundamental relationships between cells, their environment, and the forces that act upon them. The team will train a new generation of scientists and engineers in the emerging discipline of Mechano-biology, and will partner with industry to translate new scientific discoveries into products and solutions for the health and prosperity of the nation.Engineering Mechano-biology, with its focus on the interactions between structure, mechanics, and function, will have a major impact on our ability to construct and repair tissues, organs, and implants; to adapt plants to changing environments; to treat inflammation and fibrosis; to understand the effects of exercise, activity, and trauma; and to engineer optimized synthetic and biomimetic materials. This interdisciplinary field will enable fundamental discoveries in biological function and spur the development of cutting edge technologies for interrogation and guidance of plant and animal structures on multiple scales. Projects will span the length and time scales over which forces operate: from single molecules to supramolecular complexes, cells, tissues and whole organisms, and from milliseconds to hours, weeks or months. Major research efforts will focus on three Integrated Research Thrusts (IRTs) requiring new interfaces across disciplines and organized following a cell's hierarchical perspective from mechano-responsive molecules to signaling pathways to the extracellular niche. Thrust 1: Mechano-biology of Biomolecules and Nanostructures will characterize and engineer proteins and molecules, enabling detection and manipulation of the pN and nm mechano-responsiveness of proteins, scaffolds, and cells to probe or generate increasingly complex engineered mechano-biological reagents, materials, and systems. Thrust 2: Mechano-biology of Cells and Signaling will elucidate how cells dynamically react to mechanical forces through feedback between the cytoskeleton, the nucleus and the surrounding matrix, uncover the ways mechano-signaling contributes to cell-cell communication, and discover how cells distinguish and integrate mechano-signals across length and time scales. Thrust 3: Mechano-biology of Tissues, Materials and Microenvironments will identify matrix-based mechanical cues in plants and animals and investigate the fabrication of bulk gels, fibrous networks, and engineered micro-devices. This will lead to the generation of materials with mechano-responsive properties as well as novel means for studying the structural and biophysical cues in mechano-transduction.