A new multi-scale theory for the mechanics of embryonic tissues

尽管数百年来人们已经认识到，在早期胚胎发育过程中，必须有机械力才能将组织重塑为器官和其他关键结构，但确定何时、何地以及如何产生所需的力已被证明是极具挑战性的。生物学家已经取得了显着的进展，最近，在确定基因和生化途径与一些这些组织运动，但了解的力学基础，这些运动仍然是迫切需要的。我们的研究计划的目标是发展一个综合的多尺度理论的力学胚胎组织，是全面的，定量的，在这个探索中，我们将使用我们在实验室设计和编写的最先进的计算机软件来模拟胚胎组织的力学。我们还将使用我们开发的独特的科学仪器来收集两栖动物和鸡胚胎的力和运动数据，以便我们可以验证我们的模型。我们预计，我们的理论将导致对特定组织运动模式的力学的基本见解，例如会聚延伸和神经形成，这些过程对正常脊髓和大脑的形成至关重要。

Although it has been recognized for hundreds of years that mechanical forces must act in order for tissues to be reshaped into organs and other crucial structures during early embryo development, identifying when, where and how the requisite forces are generated has proven to be extremely challenging. Biologists have made remarkable progress, of late, in terms of identifying the genes and biochemical pathways associated with some of these tissue movements, but an understanding of the mechanics that underlie these motions is still urgently needed.The objective of our research program is to develop an integrated multi-scale theory for the mechanics of embryonic tissues that is comprehensive, quantitative, experimentally verified and powerful enough to reveal, in detail, how specific morphogenetic events are driven.In this quest, we will use state-of-the-art computer software that we designed and wrote in our laboratory to model the mechanics of embryonic tissues. We will also use unique scientific instruments that we developed to collect force and motion data from amphibian and chick embryos so that we could validate our models.We anticipate that our theory will lead to fundamental insights into the mechanics of specific tissue motion patterns such as convergent extension and neurulation, processes that are crucial to normal spinal cord and brain formation.