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

肌动球蛋白应力纤维束，或？应力纤维，？是索状结构，沿着活细胞的底部运行，使细胞能够产生对其环境的牵引力，这一功能对细胞结构控制和迁移至关重要。该项目旨在研究应力纤维在细胞和组织结构和力学调节中所起的作用。有两个关键的计划目标。第一个目标是阐明细胞外基质刚性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的机械和生化特性的细胞培养基质，以及使用飞秒激光消融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。第二个目标是研究单个应力纤维在二维和三维培养中控制多细胞结构的结构和机制中所起的作用。这个项目将有助于我们基本理解活细胞用来定义和修改其结构的机制，这些行为对正常组织发育和疾病都是至关重要的。该项目还将提供对机械力在控制细胞生理学中所起的越来越重要的作用的机械洞察，这反过来可能有助于为细胞和组织工程系统制定更合理的设计策略。此外，该项目还有两个关键的教育目标，包括开发研究生水平的课程和组织一个区域研究研讨会，有来自以本科生为主的机构的教职员工和学生参加，这两个主题都是细胞和组织机械转导领域的。

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.