Collection 

Mechanics of cells and tissues

This collection of recent articles from Nature Research journals focuses on the latest efforts to understand the roles of mechanical forces in animal cells and tissues. It highlights the broad involvement of mechanical forces in different biological contexts, their roles in development, physiology and disease, and discusses how these forces are sensed and transduced to produce biologically-relevant responses. The collection also showcases new technical approaches to study and modulate mechanobiology, which in the future could be used control cell fate and behaviour for therapeutic benefits. This collection is aimed for researchers from a broad range of disciplines — biologists, physicists and theoreticians alike — and we hope that it will foster inter-disciplinary initiatives to study biological systems.

See also the following projects at Nature Research:

Focus on Mechanobiology at Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology

Recent progress in the study of cellular mechanotransduction — the conversion of mechanical forces into biochemical signals — has increased our understanding of mechanobiology by providing novel insights into how mechanical inputs regulate cell behaviour and tissue homeostasis and how their deregulation might cause disease. This Focus issue includes Review articles and comments that discuss how mechanical forces are transduced into the cell, including into the nucleus, to control gene expression and to regulate morphogenesis, tissue regeneration and tumorigenesis. Also discussed is the therapeutic potential of modulating mechanotransduction with the use of synthetic matrices.

 

Focus on Mechanobiology at Nature Materials

The biophysical cues in the extracellular environment are known to have a significant effect on the behaviour of cells. This knowledge has motivated bioengineers to develop tailored materials to mimic the extracellular matrix in order to further investigate fundamental signaling pathways that govern mechanotransduction as well as to produce biomaterials for tissue repair and regeneration. This focus issue brings together recent developments in mechanobiology with comments and research that highlight fundamental processes such as integrin-mediated cell adhesion in response to mechanical loads and also how biophysical cues can regulate stemness, matrix deposition and disease progression.

 

Series on Mechanobiology at Nature Cell Biology

Cell behaviour is governed by the mechanical environment, which influences not only cell-intrinsic properties, but also cellular interactions at the tissue and organism level. Thus, the sensing and transduction of mechanical forces has become an intensely studied aspect of cell biology. Nature Cell Biology presents a series of commissioned Reviews discussing force sensing in development, how forces are measured, the interplay of migrating cells and tissue mechanics, and the nucleus as a mechanosensor. An accompanying online library presents recent research articles published in Nature Cell Biology and other Nature journals.