Related papers: Stress relaxation microscopy (STREM): Imaging mech…
Animal cells use traction forces to sense the mechanics and geometry of their environment. Measuring these traction forces requires a workflow combining cell experiments, image processing and force reconstruction based on elasticity theory.…
Recent measurements of the short-wavelength (~ 1--100 nm) fluctuations in stacks of lipid membranes have revealed two distinct relaxations: a fast one (decay rate of ~ 0.1 ns^{-1}), which fits the known baroclinic mode of bulk lamellar…
We develop and thoroughly test a stress-controlled, parallel plates shear cell that can be coupled to an optical microscope or a small angle light scattering setup, for simultaneous investigation of the rheological properties and the…
Rheology aims at quantifying the response of materials to mechanical forcing. However, standard rheometers provide only global macroscopic quantities, such as viscoelastic moduli. They fail to capture the heterogeneous flow of soft…
During development, epithelial tissues undergo extensive morphogenesis based on coordinated changes of cell shape and position over time. Continuum mechanics describes tissue mechanical state and shape changes in terms of strain and stress.…
Spatially confined rigid membranes reorganize their morphology in response to the imposed constraints. A crumpled elastic sheet presents a complex pattern of random folds focusing the deformation energy while compressing a membrane resting…
The mechanical properties of PC12 living cells have been studied at the nanoscale with a Force Feedback Microscope using two experimental approaches. Firstly, the local mechanical impedance of the cell membrane has been mapped…
A rising wave of technologies and instruments are enabling more labs and clinics to make a variety of measurements related to tissue viscoelastic properties. These instruments include elastography imaging scanners, rheological shear…
It is stated in the main in essence new approach to mechanics of the stressed state of the solid body from statistically isotropic material and the homogeneous liquid dynamics. The approach essence is in the detected property of the…
Measuring the dynamics and mechanical properties of muscles and joints is important to understand the (patho)physiology of muscles. However, acquiring dynamic time-resolved MRI data is challenging. We have previously developed…
We investigate morphologies of proliferating cellular tissues using a newly developed numerical simulation model for mechanical cell division and migration in 2D. The model is applied to a bimodal mixture consisting of stiff cells with a…
The dynamics of active viscoelastic surfaces plays an important role in biological systems. One prominent example is the actin cortex, a thin bio-polymer sheet underneath the outer membrane of biological cells which combines active…
Using discrete element simulations based on molecular dynamics, we investigate the mechanical behavior of sheared, dry, frictional granular media in the "dense" and "critical" regimes. We find that this behavior is partitioned between…
Collective behaviors in cellular systems are regulated not only by biochemical signalling pathways but also by intercellular mechanical forces, whose quantification in contractile monolayers remains poorly understood. Here, by integrating…
Contraction assay based on surface measurement have been widely used to evaluate cell contractility in 3D models. This method is straightforward and requires no specific equipment, but it does not provide quantitative data about contraction…
Viscoelastic stress relaxation is a basic characteristic of soft matter systems such as colloids, gels, and biological networks. Although the Maxwell model of linear viscoelasticity provides a classical description of stress relaxation, the…
The relationship between velocities, tractions, and intercellular stresses in the migrating epithelial monolayer are currently unknown. Ten years ago, a method known as Monolayer Stress Microscopy (MSM) was suggested from which the…
Mechanical signaling plays a key role in biological processes like embryo development and cancer growth. One prominent way to probe mechanical properties of tissues is to study their response to externally applied forces. Using a…
The musculoskeletal humanoid can move well under environmental contact thanks to its body softness. However, there are few studies that actively make use of the environment to rest its flexible musculoskeletal body. Also, its complex…
Connecting cell behavior to tissue shape and mechanics is a key challenge in the physics of morphogenesis. Cytoskeletal turnover precludes a fixed reference state, and tensions are actively generated independently of strain; so conventional…