报告内容简介：

Cancer has already become the second most common cause of death in the world and accounted for almost 1 of every 4 deaths, with a 70% increase in the number of new cases over the next 2 decades, due to that cancer cells grow and divide in a rapid and unregulated way and eventually spread to other tissues of the body. Extensive investigations have been focused on the biochemical aspect of cancer cell and the corresponding biological signal pathways involving tumorigenesis, progression, and metastasis in the past several decades. Less is known, however, that the biomechanical mechanism of cancer cell growth and division especially in three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrix surroundings, and the underlying molecular biological mechanism.

This talk mainly focuses on biomechanical and mechanobiological aspects of single cancer cell interactions with 3D extracellular matrix microenvironments. I will firstly present synthesis and fabrication of biocompatible hydrogels with varying rigidities and densities of ligands for cell adhesion, which provides a platform for cancer cell culture and 3D cell-ECM interactions. Subsequently, I will report a novel 3D cellular growth force microscopy (3D-CGFM) by means of high-performance digital volume correlation algorithm, nonlinear finite element method and Tikhonov’s regularization strategy, which provides a set of quantitative tools for 3D mechanobiology. This 3D-CGFM allows us to reproduce the spatio-temporary dynamics of mechanical interactions between cell and ECM. With 3D-CGFM, I ascertain biomechanical features of anisotropic growth of cancer cells regulated by contraction of cortex, tension of stress fiber, support force of microtubule network, as well as osmotic pressure. Finally, I will also present the possible molecular biological mechanism of 3D cellular growth forces and ECM stiffness modulating cancer cell cycle progression.

报告人简介：

Jianyong Huang is currently a postdoctoral fellow/research associate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. He graduated from Inner Mongolia university of Technology with M.S. in Solid Mechanics in 2005. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanics (Biomechanics & medical Engineering) from Peking University in 2009 and then had a short postdoctoral training at the Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies at Peking University. His current research interest is focused on biomechanical interactions of single cancer cells with extracellular matrix (ECM) in 3D microenvironments, with particular emphasis on how these interactions influence cell functions and behaviors. His research has led to more than 30 journal publications in the fields of cell mechanics and biomedical engineering and many peer-reviewed conference papers.

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