Cell and Molecular Mechanobiology

3.0 credits · Graduate

Mechanobiology describes how cells and tissues sense and respond to their physical environment. Examples range from muscle cells growing in response to exercise, bones adapting to mechanical load, mechanical forces modulating immune cell function, and tissue stiffness promoting the risk of cancer. This course will introduce examples of mechanobiology in physiology and disease, explain the cell and molecular components involved in mechanosensing and the cell/tissue response to mechanical stimuli, highlight experimental tools and approaches to study mechanobiology at the cell, molecular, and tissue level, analyze representative data of mechanobiology experiments, and discuss current limitations and engineering challenges to advance to field.