Mechanobiology of differentiation and invasion in 3D cell assemblies

The goal of this project area is to elucidate the mechanobiological mechanisms underlying the formation and fate of spherical cell assemblies. We study these mechanisms in the following paradigms:: transition of 2D iPSC colonies into 3D self-organized embryoid bodies, breast tissue homeostasis and tumor invasion under external shear stress, and human embryo implantation. The observations are modeled to define the fundamental framework for the interactions and hierarchical organization of epithelial cells within tissues in mechanoresponses.

P R O J E C T S

Helmholtz-Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Division of Stem Cell Biology
Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI-2): Mechanobiology, Forschungszentrum Jülich
Institute of Molecular and Cellular Anatomy (MOCA), Uniklinik RWTH Aachen
PULS Group, Institute for Theoretical Physics, FAU Erlangen