MBInsights Annual

2017 Edition

MBI Science Communications | NOV 2017

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An annual summary of research at the Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore

The purpose of these synopses is to show the breadth of the research coming from the MBI. We are very proud of the fact that we have been able to build an institute with state-of-the-art capabilities in super-resolution microscopy and microfabrication. Our open lab environment and the energy of our students and postdocs have combined to take advantage of our experimental tools to answer important biological questions. Because we believe that these tools should be utilized to solve many more problems in the biomedical sciences, we invite you and your colleagues to join us in collaborative studies to solve those problems. Many different disciplines are needed since the problems need the tools of physicists, biologists, computational scientists, and engineers, working side-by-side to better understand how biological systems integrate mechanical cues and physical forces from the world around them.

We hope that you find these research summaries interesting, and we invite you to join us in collaborative studies at the MBI.

Table of Contents

A cellular shock absorber

How the structure of talin makes it an ideal force buffer

A molecular rivet for long-range force transmission

Plastin provides global connectivity to the cortex

Elongation by contraction

Pulling forces drive changes in cell shape

Decisions in a pinch

Receptor tyrosine kinases control mechanosensors

Microscopic muscles

How non-muscle cells find the strength to move

Signaling in 3D

Adding a spatial dimension to cell signaling

From the bottom up

The secret dynamics at the base of the cell

The BP(GAP) between signaling pathways

To grow or not to grow?

Persistent a-catenin activation

Force-locking adherens junction components

Stability without junctions

A new role for cadherin

Letting go

How dying cells detach from their neighbours

Illuminating the Contacts

Superresolution mapping of adherens junction machinery

Perspectives from MBI

A personal viewpoint on mechanobiology from MBI senior research fellow Rishita Changede

100 years of On Growth and Form

Celebrating a century of D’Arcy Thompson’s scientific theories and examining their influence on the field of mechanobiology

Controlling membrane waves

Rhythmic oscillations in cell biology

Defects in epithelial tissue organization

A question of life or death

To deep to divide

How cells sense depth and halt cell proliferation

A moving story of FHL2 and forces

The influence of matrix rigidity on cell growth

Breaking cell symmetry

A force driven mechanism for establishing cell polarity

HER2 can HEAR2

How the ‘deaf’ receptor hears mechanical signals

soSPIM-FCS

A novel tool for imaging nuclear protein dynamics

Modelling developmental disorders

Correctly timing cell division during embryo formation

Cellular podiatry

Understanding how cells form feet

Bailed out

How liver cells elimiate bile from blocked ducts

Development in time and space

Shedding light on the importance of time in embryo development

Cell extrusion mechanisms

How cell density affects the mechanism of extrusion