CAREER: Understanding Cellular and Molecular Mechanics with Nano-/Micro-technology

职业：用纳米/微技术理解细胞和分子力学philip leducl abstract随着跨学科研究团队开发新的工程工具以进一步探索医学和生物学的基本问题，工程学和生命科学之间的传统界限正在迅速瓦解。这种融合有望通过在力学领域将分子功能与细胞行为联系起来，揭示复杂的细胞相互作用。纳米技术的最新进展使单个细胞和分子的实验能够验证哺乳动物细胞内结构变形是由亚细胞结构域响应的机械扰动局部控制的假设。这些研究的更广泛的影响是希望通过最终导致病理条件的治疗发展造福社会，其中细胞力学和结构被认为在心脏病，骨质疏松症和癌症中起着重要作用。该提案的技术优点将集中在通过识别独特的结构功能和行为来确定分子相互作用和细胞结构之间的联系。

National Science FoundationCAREER: Understanding Cellular and Molecular Mechanics with Nano-/Micro-technologyPhilip LeDucAbstractThe traditional boundaries between engineering and the life sciences are rapidly disintegrating as interdisciplinary research teams develop new engineering tools for further exploring fundamental questions in medicine and biology. This fusion promises to uncover complex cell interactions by linking molecular function to cellular behavior in the area of mechanics. Recent advances in nanotechnology are enabling experiments on individual cells and molecules to test the hypothesis that intracellular structural deformation in mammalian cells is locally controlled by mechanical perturbations through the response of sub-cellular domains. The broader impact of these studies is hoped to benefit society through ultimately leading to the development of treatments for pathological conditions in which cellular mechanics and structure are believed to play an important role: heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer. The technical merit of this proposal will focus on determining the link between molecular interactions and cell structure by identifying unique structural function and behavior.