Durotaxis—cell migration along stiffness gradients—is implicated in development, repair, and disease, though its in vivo role remains unclear. We show that durotaxis actively drives disease progression in mouse models of lung fibrosis (IPF) and metastatic pancreatic cancer. In fibrosis, it guides fi... 

Physiological and pathological cardiac stress induced by exercise and hypertension, respectively, increase the hemodynamic load for the heart and trigger specific hypertrophic signals in cardiomyocytes leading to adaptive or maladaptive cardiac hypertrophy responses involving a mechanosensitive remo... 

In-vitro engineered cardiac tissue grafts are of growing interest for different applications such as substituting scarred myocardial tissue after infarction or chronic cardiomyopathies, or as a drug testing platform. Several studies have recently reported successful fabrication of microtissues from s... 

Many cell types in our body, such as fibroblasts, immune cells but also cancer cells, are able to actively migrate and squeeze through the tiny pores and cell layers in our tissue. Similarly, blood cells are passively pushed and squeezed through narrow capillaries. In both cases, the deformability o... 

Mechanosensation in many organs (e.g. lungs, heart, gut) is mediated by biosensors (like mechanosensitive ion channels), which convert mechanical stimuli into electrical and/or biochemical signals. To study those pathways, technical devices are needed that apply strain profiles to cells, and ideally...