Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Matthew R. Zanotelli, Jian Zhang, Ismael Ortiz, Wenjun Wang, Neil C. Chada, Cynthia A. Reinhart-King
Summary: The study found that changes in collagen density are correlated with cell migration ability and bioenergetics, with significantly different effects observed in highly motile cells. These results reveal a link between matrix mechanics, migratory phenotype, and bioenergetics.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Oncology
Miriam Palmiero, Isabel Cantarosso, Laura di Blasio, Valentina Monica, Barbara Peracino, Luca Primo, Alberto Puliafito
Summary: Cancer cells can migrate collectively and form heteroclonal cell clusters through subcellular actin-rich protrusions. Disruption of cytoskeletal dynamics impairs collective migration, while myosin II activation is necessary for multicellular movements. The attraction of cell clusters may be mediated by secreted soluble factors, as evidenced by inhibition experiments and the chemoattracting activity of conditioned culture media.
MOLECULAR ONCOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Siavash Monfared, Guruswami Ravichandran, Jose Andrade, Amin Doostmohammadi
Summary: Cell layers eliminate unwanted cells through the extrusion process, and the underlying mechanical basis of cellular extrusion remains largely unexplored. By using a phase-field model, the study reveals that the forces involved in cell extrusion are linked to defects in cellular arrangements, and increasing cell-cell adhesion forces can switch the behavior of the cell monolayer for extrusion. An extrusion event acts as a mechanism to relieve localized stress concentration by accessing three-dimensional mechanical stress fields.
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Eleonora Sarantelli, Apostolis Mourkakis, Lefteris C. Zacharia, Andreas Stylianou, Vasiliki Gkretsi
Summary: As metastasis is a major cause of cancer-related deaths, understanding the cellular and molecular events involved in cancer cell migration and invasion is crucial for developing novel anti-metastatic therapies. Fascin-1, an actin-bundling protein, plays a fundamental role in cell migration processes. It is significantly elevated in most cancers and its high expression is associated with aggressive disease and poor prognosis. Recent studies show that Fascin-1 is critically involved in metastasis and suggest it as a promising target for anti-metastatic treatment.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xing Zhao, Jiliang Hu, Yiwei Li, Ming Guo
Summary: Recent research has shown that physical microenvironments play a crucial role in contributing to single-cell heterogeneity; applying physical compression to a population of non-small-cell lung carcinoma cells leads to the development of heterogeneous subpopulations with distinct gene signatures. Compression increases gene expression noise, impacting cell fate outcomes, and the study demonstrates how mechanical stimulations can alter transcription dynamics to influence cell fate determination. This research provides insight into the interplay between cancer ecology, evolution, and physical microenvironments, shedding light on the origin of single-cell heterogeneity.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Laura Wiggins, Alice Lord, Killian L. Murphy, Stuart E. Lacy, Peter J. O'Toole, William J. Brackenbury, Julie Wilson
Summary: CellPhe is a pattern recognition toolkit that enables unbiased characterization of cellular phenotypes within time-lapse videos. It imports tracking information from multiple algorithms and provides automated recognition and removal of erroneous cell boundaries. It also offers a variety of feature selection and classification algorithms.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yufei Ma, Ting Han, Qinxuan Yang, Jing Wang, Bicong Feng, Yuanbo Jia, Zhao Wei, Feng Xu
Summary: The importance of tissue viscoelasticity is highlighted, molecular mechanisms of hydrogel viscoelasticity are summarized, and characterization techniques used at the macroscale and microscale are reviewed.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Rocio G. Sampayo, Mason Sakamoto, Madeline Wang, Sanjay Kumar, David V. Schaffer
Summary: During the process of cell differentiation into tissues, cells are influenced by mechanical signals from the extracellular matrix (ECM), which regulate their fate. The activation of Rho GTPases plays a key role in sensing these cues, but the regulation and integration of the activation dynamics is still unclear. This study found that ECM stiffness cues not only alter the magnitude but also the temporal frequency of RhoA and Cdc42 activation in adult neural stem cells (NSCs). Further experiments using optogenetics showed that the frequency of RhoA and Cdc42 activation drives astrocytic versus neuronal differentiation, highlighting the functional significance of these dynamics.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Oncology
Zhuohan Xin, Masashi K. Kajita, Keiko Deguchi, Shin-ichiro Suye, Satoshi Fujita
Summary: This study utilized subcellular tracking technology to analyze cell migration, employing normalization and dimensionality reduction methods in the research. The results demonstrate that this approach can effectively identify cells with similar migration patterns, providing a reliable method for understanding collective cell migration patterns.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Chika Okimura, Misaki Iwanaga, Tatsunari Sakurai, Tasuku Ueno, Yasuteru Urano, Yoshiaki Iwadate
Summary: This study reveals that leading-edge elongation in collective cell migration is achieved through the insertion of follower cells. Follower cells and adjacent leader cells are connected by actomyosin cables, and the contractile forces along the cables transform follower cells into leaders.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Shlomi Brielle, Danny Bavli, Alex Motzik, Yoav Kan-Tor, Xue Sun, Chen Kozulin, Batia Avni, Oren Ram, Amnon Buxboim
Summary: The study identified distinct subpopulations of MSCs with different mechanosensitivities and differentiation capacities under various matrix conditions. Tropomyosin-1 was found to play a key role in MSC differentiation, responding sensitively to stiffness cues and guiding differentiation toward soft or stiff tissue lineages.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biology
William Duncan Martinson, Rebecca McLennan, Jessica M. Teddy, Mary C. McKinney, Lance A. Davidson, Ruth E. Baker, Helen M. Byrne, Paul M. Kulesa, Philip K. Maini
Summary: Collective cell migration is important in vertebrate development. This study investigates the influence of dynamically changing microenvironments on this phenomenon. Through computational modeling, the authors propose that NCC remodeling of the extracellular matrix creates a scaffold for trailing cells, enabling them to form robust and coherent stream patterns. Contact guidance and differential cell-cell repulsion are identified as key contributors to robust collective cell migration.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Haihui Zhang, Hongwei Xu, Weihao Sun, Xu Fang, Peiwu Qin, Jianyong Huang, Jing Fang, Feng Lin, Chunyang Xiong
Summary: Mechanical heterogeneity plays an important role in mediating collective cell migration. By fabricating microelastically-patterned hydrogels with varying periodic distance, it was observed that a decrease in periodic distance leads to increased velocity and directionality of migrating cells. Inhibition of ROCK and myosin IIA contraction reduces cell migration on mechanically heterogeneous substrates. F-actin and myosin IIA form purse-string structures at the leading edge on mechanically heterogeneous substrates, revealing their involvement in cell-cell interactions and mechanical perception.
ACTA BIOMATERIALIA
(2023)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Jonathan Edward Dawson, Tina Sellmann, Katrin Porath, Rainer Bader, Ursula van Rienen, Revathi Appali, Rudiger Koehling
Summary: This article investigates the migration of human osteoblasts in a direct current electric field and proposes a computational model to describe this process. The results show that cell-cell interactions and fluctuations in the migration direction promote collective migration of osteoblasts.
FRONTIERS IN BIOENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biology
Carly M. Krull, Haiyi Li, Amit Pathak
Summary: The nucleocytoplasmic transport of E-M factors plays a role in regulating cellular epithelial-mesenchymal states. By inhibiting nuclear export, researchers found that soft substrates increase collective migration of cells while stiffer substrates reduce migration. This suggests that nuclear export inhibition disrupts cell migration and leads to loss of cell-cell coordination.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
James Carthew, Hazem H. Abdelmaksoud, Karla J. Cowley, Margeaux Hodgson-Garms, Roey Elnathan, Joachim P. Spatz, Juergen Brugger, Helmut Thissen, Kaylene J. Simpson, Nicolas H. Voelcker, Jessica E. Frith, Victor J. Cadarso
Summary: The novel technology developed allows for direct imprint of micro- and nanoscaled topographical features onto the base of conventional cell cultureware, making it compatible with standard biological techniques and methods of analysis. High-throughput screening across five distinct cell types interrogated the effects of 12 surface topographies, demonstrating unique cell specific responses to behavior and cell morphological characteristics. This technology provides new insights into how surface topographies can regulate key image descriptors to drive cell fate determination in various fields in the life sciences.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yuanzhen Wang, Chensheng Xu, Timotheus Jahnke, Wolfgang Verestek, Siegfried Schmauder, Joachim P. Spatz
Summary: This article introduces a new method for modeling the microstructure of carbon black and calculating the electrical conductivity of polymer composites. It demonstrates the ability to predict the required carbon black content and minimize the amount of additive to achieve a specific conductivity.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yixuan Jia, Christoph A. Spiegel, Alexander Welle, Stefan Heissler, Elaheh Sedghamiz, Modan Liu, Wolfgang Wenzel, Maximilian Hackner, Joachim P. Spatz, Manuel Tsotsalas, Eva Blasco
Summary: This article presents a method for manufacturing programmable materials using alkoxyamines for printing. By investigating different reaction processes, the mechanical properties of the material can be adjusted, and the size of the structure can be changed through polymerization reactions.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Elham Sharifikolouei, Baran Sarac, Alexandre Micoulet, Reinhard Mager, Moyu Watari-Alvarez, Efi Hadjixenophontos, Zaklina Burghard, Guido Schmitz, Joachim P. Spatz
Summary: The hardness of AISI316-Ti stainless steel has been improved by generating an amorphous-nanocrystalline microstructure. The fully amorphous structure was obtained using a modified melt-spinning technique, and the hardness was characterized using thermal analysis and nanoindentation analysis.
MATERIALS & DESIGN
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Oskar Staufer, Goesta Gantner, Ilia Platzman, Klaus Tanner, Imre Berger, Joachim P. Spatz
Summary: Synthetic biology is an engineering approach that aims to redesign or build biological organisms to enhance our understanding of life. This article summarizes current methods for synthetic engineering of viral replication cycles and discusses the potential risks associated with this bottom-up approach in infectious diseases.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Desiree Sauter, Martin Schroeter, Christoph Frey, Cornelia Weber, Ulrike Mersdorf, Jan-Willi Janiesch, Ilia Platzman, Joachim P. Spatz
Summary: This study introduces a method for assembling an artificial cytoskeleton in a synthetic cell model system, and investigates the temperature-mediated contraction/release behavior of the cytoskeleton. The results show that the deformation induced by hydrogel can be used to controllably manipulate the motility of droplet-based synthetic cells.
MACROMOLECULAR BIOSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Virology
Fania Geiger, Tim Wendlandt, Tim Berking, Joachim P. Spatz, Christina Wege
Summary: A simple enzyme-mediated strategy enables site-specific covalent coupling of genetically tagged luciferase molecules to TMV-CoA, both in solution and on solid supports. The use of TMV-CoA for fishing ybbR-tagged proteins from complex mixtures could provide new opportunities for versatile equipment of miniaturized devices with biologically active proteins. The enzymes displayed on the protein coat of TMV nanocarriers exhibited high activity.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Andreas Fink, Charlotte R. Doll, Ana Yague Relimpio, Yannik Dreher, Joachim P. Spatz, Kerstin Goepfrich, Elisabetta Ada Cavalcanti-Adam
Summary: Spontaneous and induced front-rear polarization of cells is crucial for cell migration in various physiological and pathological conditions. The balance between adhesion and cytoskeleton-driven protrusion and retraction is important for adherent cell migration. A minimal model system using synthetic cells resembling giant unilamellar lipid vesicles (GUVs) was created to study the relationship between cytoskeleton organization and cell front-rear polarization. Micropatterned surfaces induced asymmetric deformation and alignment of actin filaments in adherent GUVs depending on their shape and size. This bottom-up approach lays the foundation for further understanding the mechanisms of cell migration.
ACS SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Sadaf Pashapour, Senne Seneca, Martin Schroeter, Friedrich Frischknecht, Ilia Platzman, Joachim Spatz
Summary: This study developed protein-based microcapsules derived from the extracellular matrix (ECM) to investigate the interactions between ECM components and pathogens and study disease infectivity. The microcapsules were created by using water-in-oil emulsion droplets as templates, allowing for the charge-mediated attraction of ECM proteins to the inner periphery of the droplets. The released ECM-based protein microcapsules containing E. coli showed differences in the behavior of E. coli depending on the surrounding ECM protein matrix.
ADVANCED HEALTHCARE MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Immunology
Sophie L. Preuss, Stephanie Oehrl, Hao Zhang, Thomas Doebel, Ulrike Engel, Jennifer L. Young, Joachim P. Spatz, Knut Schaekel
Summary: Formation and deposition of immune complexes (ICs) is a characteristic feature of autoimmune diseases. In this study, we demonstrated that ICs induce a specific migratory response, haptokinesis, in non-classical monocytes (ncMo) and in a specific subset of monocytes known as 6-sulfo LacNAc(+) monocytes (slanMo), but not in other monocyte subsets. CD16-dependent signaling and the activity of the metalloproteinase ADAM17 were found to mediate this migratory response.
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Reinhard Lipowsky, Shreya Pramanik, Amelie S. Benk, Miroslaw Tarnawski, Joachim P. Spatz, Rumiana Dimova
Summary: Artificial or synthetic organelles are a challenge in bottom-up synthetic biology. Synthetic organelles are typically based on spherical membrane compartments for spatially confining chemical reactions. However, cellular organelles, like the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), have more complex architectures. The morphology of ER, including its straight appearance and nanoscopic shapes, as well as the formation and maintenance of its reticular networks, are closely related to the dimerization of membrane proteins and the generation of membrane tension.
Article
Biophysics
Basil Thurakkal, Kishore Hari, Rituraj Marwaha, Sanjay Karki, Mohit K. Jolly, Tamal Das
Summary: Cell density and cell proliferation in the epithelium are closely connected through contact inhibition of proliferation (CIP). Different stages of CIP show distinct characteristics in terms of metabolism. Epithelial cells establish collective metabolic heterogeneity in the pre-epithelial transition stage, while the post-epithelial transition stage exhibits relatively homogeneous metabolic potential field.
BIOPHYSICAL JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ana Yagu''e Relimpio, Andreas Fink, Duc Thien Bui, Sebastian Fabritz, Martin Schro''ter, Alessia Ruggieri, Ilia Platzman, Joachim P. Spatz
Summary: This study uses bottom-up assembled synthetic SARS-CoV-2 viruses to investigate the binding properties of the Omicron and Alpha variants. The results reveal a significantly higher affinity of Omicron S towards the lipid membrane and ACE2 receptor.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Shreya Pramanik, Jan Steinkuehler, Rumiana Dimova, Joachim Spatz, Reinhard Lipowsky
Summary: His-tagged molecules can be attached to lipid bilayers via anchor lipids for biofunctionalization. Two fluorescent His-tagged molecules, GFP and FITC, were studied in this research. The brightness of membrane-bound 6H-GFP was found to exceed that of membrane-bound 6H-FITC, contrary to their quantum yields in solution. The membrane fluorescence was also measured as a function of the molar concentration of fluorophores, leading to the determination of equilibrium dissociation constants and a strong pH-dependence of membrane fluorescence.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Lucia T. Benk, Amelie S. Benk, Rafael B. Lira, Elisabetta Ada Cavalcanti-Adam, Rumiana Dimova, Reinhard Lipowsky, Benjamin Geiger, Joachim P. Spatz
Summary: This study utilizes droplet-based microfluidics to generate cell-sized giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) with a defined molecular composition, and quantifies the adhesion of integrin alpha(IIb)beta(3)-containing protocells in relation to the number of integrin-talin head domain (THD) complexes. The study shows that THD induces integrin clustering in protocells adhering to fibrinogen, which is an essential step in synthetic cell design. These results pave the way for further investigations of protein-protein interactions and assembly mechanisms within complex synthetic cells.
ADVANCED NANOBIOMED RESEARCH
(2022)