About the workshop

Living organisms, from bacteria to humans, possess an amazing capacity to sense multiple features of the surrounding environment even at the nanometer scale. The molecular composition, rigidity and micro/nanotopography of the microenvironment trigger specific cellular responses including cell proliferation, survival, differentiation and migration.
While extensive studies have been devoted to achieving a better understanding of the soluble factors and the mechanism(s) by which they regulate the fate decisions, only recently a critical role has been revealed for physical and mechanical factors in controlling self-renewal and lineage specification of stem cells. Elucidating the relationship between mechanical deformation and biological response offers a prime target for differentiating stem cells, remodelling of engineered and regenerated tissues, and clarifying how the transduction of mechanical signals evolves throughout and impacts on our life and disease.
This EMBO Workshop aims at providing a cutting-edge view of the growing information on 'mechanobiology', an emerging multidisciplinary field of science at the interface of biology and engineering, that potently interprets cell fate and functions based on the complex mechanical-biochemical events occurring at the membrane, down to the nuclear level.
New advances in mechano-transduction will be discussed with a particular focus on how it controls stem cell behaviour and morphogenesis/development, and how its defects lead to disease state.

The EMBO Workshop will encourage a motivated and multidisciplinary group of investigators to conceive innovative approaches to understand biological function and to pave the way towards the translation of mechanobiologic concepts in clinics and in biotechnological applications.

Topics that will be covered include:

• Mechanobiology in development and morphogenesis
• Steering the mechanoresponse by micro/nanoengineered environments
• Mechanotrasduction mechanisms
• Cell migration in mechanically constrained environments
• Stem cells and tissue regeneration: toward therapeutic applications

For more information please visit:

http://events.embo.org/15-mechanobiology/#About