Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/13/2018
3:45 pm - 5:00 pm

Location
Rhines Hall, Room 125

Categories No Categories

Details

Join the Department of Materials Science for light refreshments and a discussion lead by Dr. Xin Tang from UF’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Mechanical signaling strongly influences embryological development, differentiation, morphogenesis, tissue patterning, and aging as well as various other biological functions. When mechanosensing, mechanotransduction and mechanoresponse are mis-regulated, diseases usually occur. Invention of new technologies generally enables the dissection and manipulation of basic operating principles underlying biological processes, leading to new potential therapeutics to improve health. In this talk, I will firstly focus on examples of how mechanically soft matrices can induce human carcinoma cells to undergo a malignant progression. Secondly, I will introduce a couple of new tools developed by my colleagues and myself. We apply them to the systematic investigation of uni- and multi-cellular systems, aiming to obtain a quantitative understanding of how force links form and function of living systems. Integration of fundamental science and new technology development provides new insights into complex diseases treatment and tissue regeneration.