About this Research Topic
Soft matter biomechanics and cell mechanobiology have grown to be one of the most important academics and industry fields that strongly contribute to major advances in human health. This rapidly developing interdisciplinary area of research integrating biophysics, biology, and engineering sciences aims to uncover the behavior of living soft materials for emerging needs in basic and translational research. Recent studies have discovered that cellular behavior is strongly affected by the biophysical properties of the extracellular environment such as matrix viscoelasticity and its structural characteristics. In addition, mechanical stresses experienced by cells such as due to shear, stretching, or compression can impact gene expression and cell functionality.
Understanding the underlying mechanisms of cell-ECM interplay is important since deregulation of matrix mechanical and structural responses are associated with aging as well as the variety of diseases including cardiovascular disorders and cancer.
The goal of this Research Topic is to deepen our understanding of cell-extracellular environment interactions which are a basis for a variety of cellular processes including cell motility, proliferation, survival, and differentiation, using advanced experimental and modeling approaches. Recent progress in imaging techniques permits an unprecedented level of structural details that together with the application of biophysical and biochemical functional assays can provide quantitative information about cell-ECM interactions to reveal basic mechanisms underlying dynamics of blood clots, tissue aging, fibrosis, as well as cancer progression and metastasis. Additionally, biophysical models calibrated using experimental data can be a useful tool to further our understanding of these complex biological systems dynamics.
We invite submissions of Original Research papers and Mini Reviews in the field of soft tissue biomechanics and quantitative mechanobiology related to the characterization of coupled biophysical cell-extracellular environment interactions and their functional consequences spanning across the molecular, cellular, and tissue scales. Quantitative experimental studies and hypothesis-driven biophysics-based in silico models exploring mechanobiological aspects of cardiovascular system diseases, cancer and cellular aging are welcome.
Understanding the underlying mechanisms of cell-ECM interplay is important since deregulation of matrix mechanical and structural responses are associated with aging as well as the variety of diseases including cardiovascular disorders and cancer.
The goal of this Research Topic is to deepen our understanding of cell-extracellular environment interactions which are a basis for a variety of cellular processes including cell motility, proliferation, survival, and differentiation, using advanced experimental and modeling approaches. Recent progress in imaging techniques permits an unprecedented level of structural details that together with the application of biophysical and biochemical functional assays can provide quantitative information about cell-ECM interactions to reveal basic mechanisms underlying dynamics of blood clots, tissue aging, fibrosis, as well as cancer progression and metastasis. Additionally, biophysical models calibrated using experimental data can be a useful tool to further our understanding of these complex biological systems dynamics.
We invite submissions of Original Research papers and Mini Reviews in the field of soft tissue biomechanics and quantitative mechanobiology related to the characterization of coupled biophysical cell-extracellular environment interactions and their functional consequences spanning across the molecular, cellular, and tissue scales. Quantitative experimental studies and hypothesis-driven biophysics-based in silico models exploring mechanobiological aspects of cardiovascular system diseases, cancer and cellular aging are welcome.
Keywords: mechanobiology, extracellular matrix, cell function, active soft matter, mechanotransduction, imaging, biorheology
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
