Most researchers today understand biology through the principles of biochemistry. Cells communicate and activate processes via chemical signals, and traditional medicine has long focused on how to treat disease by modifying those signals.
Most researchers today understand biology through the principles of biochemistry. Cells communicate and activate processes via chemical signals, and traditional medicine has long focused on how to treat disease by modifying those signals.
This approach, however, ignores a major factor that affects cell behavior: physical mechanics.
« Applying physical force to a cell can alter and control the cell’s structure and behavior, » explains Brenton Hoffman, the James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. « For example, forces generated by flowing blood helps veins and arteries grow into the correct shape and behave normally. »
But altered mechanics can also cause abnormal behaviors seen in diseases such as breast cancer.
« A breast tumor is normally discovered when someone feels a stiff lump, which causes cells to generate more mechanical force that can lead to cellular migration, » says Hoffman. « Recent work has indicated that these physical changes could actually be a trigger for cancer to spread. »
Because the field of mechanobiology is comparatively new, researchers are still developing tools that tackle basic questions regarding how different mechanical cues can disturb cells and their signaling pathways. In a new paper published in Developmental Cell in March, Hoffman and his team described a new imaging approach to visualize how forces can affect a protein and its surrounding environment in a living cell.
