Events

Abstract: Look around at the plants, animals, and people in your life. They all started as a single cell and grew into their varied shapes and abilities. How this happens has been a major mystery in biology, but those secrets are now being revealed to interdisciplinary teams of geneticists, physicists, bioengineers, and clinicians. In this talk, I will discuss cell and tissue movements during early development of the frog Xenopus laevis from the perspective of a biophysicist. These movements, from gastrulation through neurulation and tailbud formation, engage large groups of cells and reshape the embryo from a mass of undifferentiated cells into an organism that shares the basic body plan of humans. These movements are achieved by the collective generation of force and stress directed against living biomaterials that guide, resist, or flow their motion. I will describe how we measure forces and material mechanical properties of these tiny, ultrasoft systems and how they are regulated by cytoskeleton, adhesion, and extracellular matrices. The patterns of mechanical properties, stresses, and strains not only sculpt the embryo but can also direct cell fate decisions and phenotypes. I will conclude with lessons from the embryo that can provide insights for tissue engineers seeking to drive regeneration, enhance wound repair, and engineer tissues.