Research

The mechanical properties of the cellular microenvironment have been shown to critically affect several cell behaviors that are central to embryonic development and disease processes, including cancer. Measuring the mechanical properties that cells perceive in 3D multicellular systems, such as developing embryos or the progression of tumors, has been very challenging. We have developed magnetically responsive microdroplets that enable the application of controlled forces and the measurement of endogenous mechanical properties within developing 3D embryonic tissues and organs, thereby opening new avenues to approach mechanobiology questions in the native environment of cells.

Cells are known to differentiate in response to specific biochemical cues. It is unclear though if mechanical cues can instruct cells to differentiate during embryonic development. In collaboration with the group of Jerome Gros at the Institut Pasteur (Paris), we are mapping the spatial variations in endogenous cellular forces driving vertebrate limb formation while simultaneously monitoring cell type specification. Our goal is to determine if the endogenous forces drive chondrogenic differentiation in developing vertebrate limbs.
 

Embryonic development relies on different modes of collective cell migration, from the movement of small groups of cells to large-scale cell migrations. We are studying from a theoretical perspective how the different types of collective migration emerge from the physical interactions between cells. This project is a collaboration with the group of Prof. Francesco Bullo at UCSB.