FORCE OF
NATURE: DEFINING THE MECHANICAL MECHANISMS IN LIVING CELLS
A team of
researchers, led by chemical engineer Alex Dunn, measured mechanical tension at
the nanoscale to explore how living cells create and detect force. The research
could lead to a better understanding of how tissues and tumors form and grow,
and, ultimately, to how complex living organisms organize themselves.
If you
place certain types of living cells on a microscope slide, the cells will inch
across the glass, find their neighbors, and assemble themselves into a simple, if
primitive tissue. A new study at Stanford University may help explain this
phenomenon, and then some, about the mechanical structure and behavior of
complex living organisms.
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