Our laboratory studies the mechanical behavior of cells, including cell adhesion, spreading, deformation, motion, migration, invasion, stiffness, viscosity, force generation and mechano-transduction. These mechanical processes are essential for many cellular functions. Abnormal cell mechanical behavior is often associated with severe disorders such as cancer or cardiovascular diseases. We collaborate with research groups worldwide to develop novel technologies that enable us to measure or apply small forces (in the pico-Newton range) and deformations (in the low nano-meter range) that are relevant for cell mechanical functions. We use these technologies to study the behavior of cells on nano-structured biomaterials, cancer cell migration in 3-dimensional biopolymer networks, or the biochemistry of adhesion proteins.

Ben Fabry studied Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany. In 1991 he joined the R&D group of the Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine division at Draegerwerk AG, Luebeck, Germany, and subsequently the Department of Clinical Physiology at the University of Basel, Switzerland. After receiving his doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering in 1995, he was a research assistant, and after 1999 a research associate at the Physiology Program, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, where he worked on smooth muscle physiology and cellular biomechanics. Since 2003, Ben Fabry has been Professor for Medical Physics and Technology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, and since 2005 he has been the administrative head of the Center for Medical Physics and Technology at the University.