A bioengineering platform for the multiparametric and quantitative control of the cell environment across scales

细胞可以产生力。通过拉动周围环境，细胞可以感知环境的强弱。细胞也能接受化学信号。化学信号和机械信号都会影响细胞的功能，无论它是否分裂，是否应该向某个特定方向移动，或者是否应该分化。如果我们想了解细胞如何构建组织和器官，了解这个过程是至关重要的。细胞是如何整合化学和机械信号的还不清楚。其中一个原因是，在实验上将两者解耦是非常具有挑战性的。在体内，这些信号在很大程度上是交织在一起的，细胞环境非常复杂。在这个提案中，我们要求为一种设备提供资金，这种设备将使我们能够建立细胞环境，在这种环境中，我们将能够独立于环境的化学成分控制材料的刚度。这将使我们能够非常精确地确定细胞环境的每个特定参数如何影响细胞的不同功能，或者它们如何共同组织以构建组织。我们将利用这些知识来产生新的体外器官生理学模型，并研究衰老如何影响它们的功能。该设备还将作为服务提供给爱丁堡更广泛的研究人员社区。这项技术目前还无法在我们的机构中使用，但需求正在迅速增长，并吸引了不同研究领域的研究人员的兴趣。

Cells can generate forces. By pulling on their surrounding, the cells can sense how stiff or soft their environment is. Cells are also receptive to chemical signals. Both chemical and mechanical signals influence cell function, whether it divides, if it should move in any given direction or if it should differentiate. Understanding this process is fundamental if we want to understand how the cells build tissues and organs.How chemical and mechanical signals are integrated by the cells is unclear. One of the reasons for this is that decoupling the two experimentally is very challenging. In the body, these cues are largely intertwined and the cell environment is very complex. In this proposal we are requesting funding for an equipment that will allow us to build cellular environments in which we will be able to control the stiffness of the material independently of the chemistry of the environment. This will enable us to determine with great precision how each specific parameter of the cell environment affect different function of the cells or how they collectively organise to build tissues. We will use this knowledge to generate new in vitro models of organ physiology and study how ageing affects their function.The equipment will also be offered as a service to the wider community of researchers in Edinburgh. This technology is currently not available in our institutions but the demand is increasing rapidly and attracts interest from researchers across diverse fields of research.