Active Biological Mechanics

指导这项研究的一个中心思想是：生物系统，从单细胞到复杂的有机体，都表现出惊人的动态和适应性机械特性。在接下来的五年里，这个项目将根据生物学和工程学的界面如何在本世纪塑造科学的两个协同主题来追求这一概念：1)机械生物学：理解细胞如何产生和响应物理力量，特别是在疾病的背景下，重点是技术发展；2)活性生物材料：工程合成生物学和捕捉生物系统的自组装和动态力学的新材料。

Guiding this research is one central idea: biological systems, from single cells to a complex organism, display amazing dynamic and adaptive mechanical properties. Over the next five years, this program will pursue this concept in two synergistic themes based on how the interface of biology and engineering will shape science in this century: 1) Mechanobiology: understanding how cells generate and respond to physical forces particularly in the context of disease, with an emphasis on technology development, and 2) Active Biomaterials: engineering synthetic biology and new materials that capture the self-assembly and dynamic mechanics of biological systems.