Response to mechanical stimuli largely dictates cellular form and function. A host of extraordinary yet unexplained responses have been identified within the hierarchical cell structure. As experimental and model-based investigations in cell mechanics advance, the underlying structure-function mechanisms dictating these responses emerge. Here we explore the potential of microelectromechanical s...

The sculpting of embryonic tissues and organs into their functional morphologies involves the spatial and temporal regulation of mechanics at cell and tissue scales. Decades of in vitro work, complemented by some in vivo studies, have shown the relevance of mechanical cues in the control of cell behaviors that are central to developmental processes, but the lack of methodologies enabling precis...

In this paper, vibration of the protein microtubule, one of the most important intracellular elements serving as one of the common components among nanotechnology, biotechnology and mechanics, is investigated using stress and strain gradient elasticity theory and orthotropic elastic shells model. Microtubules in the cell are influenced by internal and external stimulation and play a part in con...

Local control of the stem cell microenvironment with biomaterial design is of critical importance for tissue engineering. Matrix mechanics is one aspect of biomaterial design that has received considerable attention recently due to the effect of mechanics on stem cell proliferation, morphology, and differentiation. In order to investigate the effect of locally controlled mechanics on human mese...

Abstract Biomechanics is a fundamental feature of cell. However, the manner by which actomysin tension affects tumor immune evasion remains unclear. Here we show that although cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) can effectively destroy stiff differentiated cells, they fail to kill soft tumor-repopulating cells (TRC). TRC softness prevented membrane pore formation caused CTL-released perforin. Perfori...

Different types of biological cells respond differently to mechanical stresses, and these responses are mainly governed by the cytoskeleton. The main components this biopolymer network actin filaments, microtubules, intermediate whose dynamic properties highly distinct, thus opening up a large parameter space. Aside from experiments on whole, living cells, “bottom-up” approaches, utilizing puri...

The main object of this thesis is the rigorous derivation of continuum models in mechanobiology via multiscale analysis. On the microscopic level, models in terms of energy functionals defined on networks / lattices are considered. Using concepts of Γ-convergence rigorous convergence results as well as explicit homogenisation formulae can be derived. Based on a characterisation via energy funct...