Seminar: From Active Gels to Liquid Films: Using Mesoscopic Models to Understand the Physical Behaviors of Cells and Tissues

Michael Murrell, Yale University

All dates for this event occur in the past.

Scott Laboratory
Scott Laboratory
201 W 19th Ave
E525
Columbus, OH 43210
United States

Abstract

Living cells generate and transmit mechanical forces over diverse time-scales and length-scales to determine the dynamics of cell and tissue shape during both homeostatic and pathological processes, from early embryonic development to cancer metastasis. These forces arise from the cell cytoskeleton, a scaffolding network of entangled protein polymers driven out-of-equilibrium by enzymes that convert chemical energy into mechanical work.  However, how molecular interactions within the cytoskeleton lead to the accumulation of mechanical stresses that determine the dynamics of cell shape is unknown. Furthermore, how cellular interactions are subsequently modulated to determine the shape of the tissue is also unclear. To bridge these scales, this group, in collaboration with others, uses a combination of experimental, computational and theoretical approaches. On the molecular scale, the group uses active gels as a framework to understand how mechanical stresses are produced and transmitted within the cell cytoskeleton. On the scale of cells and tissues, the group abstracts these stresses to surface tension in a liquid film and draws analogies between the dynamics of wetting the shape dynamics of cells and simple tissues. Together, the group attempts to develop comprehensive descriptions for how cytoskeletal stresses translate to the physical behaviors of cells and tissues with significant phenotypic outcomes such as wound healing and cancer metastasis.

 

About the speaker

Michael Murrell is an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering and Physics Departments, and the Systems Biology Institute at Yale University. Murrell received his BS from Johns Hopkins University in biomedical engineering and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in bioengineering, working for Roger Kamm, where he worked on understanding the collective motion of cells. He then pursued his postdoctoral studies jointly with Margaret Gardel at the University of Chicago, and Cecile Sykes at the Institut Curie in Paris, France. In his postdoc, he worked on understanding mechanics of the cell cytoskeleton. 

At Yale, Murrell's interests are in understanding the mechanical principles that drive major cellular life processes through the design and engineering of novel biomimetic systems. To this end, he develops simplified and tractable experimental models of the mechanical machinery within the cell with the goal of reproducing complex cellular behavior, such as cell division and cell migration. Murrell then combines these ‘bottom-up’ experimental models with concepts from soft matter physics to gain a fundamental understanding of the influence of mechanics on cell and tissue behavior. In parallel, he hopes to identify new design principles from biology which can be used to create novel technologies.

Hosted by Professor Carlos Castro.