Mechanical Information Processing in Adherent Cells

My lab studies how the movement and shape of living cells is controlled by living materials constructed by protein assemblies within the cell interior. In this talk, I will describe our recent efforts to understand the design principles of the active, soft materials that drive morphogenesis of multicellular tissue. In particular, I will discuss design principles by which the cellular cytoskeleton senses, generates, and adapts to mechanical forces and couples to biochemical and transcriptional pathways. Such mechanical information processing controls diverse processes including cell proliferation, barrier function and cell fate determination.