SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for March 28, 2025
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Alfred E.Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering - Seminar series
Fri, Mar 28, 2025 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Ning Wang, Ph.D., Founding Director of Institute for Mechanobiology at Northeastern University, Professor of Bioengineering in Department of Bioengineering in the College of Engineering, affiliate professor at Bouve College of Health Sciences , Northeastern University,
Talk Title: Cytoskeletal Prestress Homeostasis Is A Biological Principle of Living Cells
Abstract: What are the biological principles of living cells is a fundamental question in biology and life sciences. A biological principle is a governing rule that guides structures, functions, and behaviors of living cells. Biological principles are built upon laws of physics and chemistry but go beyond these laws and are unique for living matter. Here we discuss what differentiates a biological principle from a physical principle and discuss candidates for biological principles. We propose the idea of limiting maximum strain on the cell by regulating cytoskeletal prestress (pre-existing tensile stress) and cell modulus (i.e., stiffness). We provide experimental evidence that cytoskeletal prestress homeostasis is a fundamental biological principle of bacteria, single-celled protists, plant cells, and animal cells. We provide strong experimental evidence that regulation of myosin II-mediated cytoskeletal prestress homeostasis is essential for biological structures, functions, and behaviors of animal cells. We reveal that mechanomemory (a biological response long after mechanical perturbations are released) in the cell nucleus is a key in chromatin-stretching dependent rapid gene upregulation. We show evidence that cell softness (the inverse of stiffness) plays a key role in malignant tumor-repopulating cell progression. Leveraging biological principles of the cells (the fire of life-metabolism and the force of life-cytoskeletal prestress homeostasis) may have far-reaching implications in understanding the essence of cell life and designing effective interventions for therapeutics to enhance human health and medicine.
Biography: Professor Ning Wang is the Founding Director of Institute for Mechanobiology at Northeastern University, Professor of Bioengineering in Department of Bioengineering in the College of Engineering, affiliate professor at Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University. Dr. Wang was the Leonard C and Mary Lou Hoeft Endowed Professor in Engineering from 2014 to 2023 and Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering from 2006 to 2023 at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to that, Dr. Wang was on the faculty at Harvard-Chan School of Public Health (HCSPH) from 1994 to 2006 and a research fellow and then a research associate at HCSPH and Harvard Medical School/Children’s Hospital from 1990 to 1994. Dr. Wang received American Physiological Society Scholander Award in 1991 for his contribution to comparative physiology. Wang received Doctor of Science degree in Physiology from Harvard University in 1990 and M.S. in biomedical engineering in 1984 and B.S. in biomechanics in 1982 from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China.Wang and colleagues invented the Magnetic Twisting Cytometry (MTC) technology for probing a single cell’s mechanical properties and discovered in 1993 that the cell-matrix adhesion molecules-integrins are mechanosensors, spurring the emergence of cellular mechanobiology. Wang and colleagues revealed that E-selectins are mechanosensors in 1996 and E-cadherins are mechanosensors in 2010. Wang lab developed the 3D-MTC that applies mechanical stresses in any direction with varying frequencies in early 2000’s and perfected the technology for anisotropic mechanostimulation, quantification of rheological properties of the cells, and mechanotransduction. He provided first experimental evidence that endogenous cytoskeletal prestress regulates cell shear stiffness and controls gene expression in early 2000’s. Wang’s laboratory discovered stress focusing and the long-distance force propagation in live cells and demonstrated fundamental differences between mechanical force-based signaling and soluble growth factor-based signaling. Professor Wang discovered that an embryonic stem cell differentiates in response to applied forces of physiological magnitudes. Wang’s lab has developed a novel mechanical method that selects and isolates from the general population a small subpopulation of malignant tumor cells (called tumor-repopulating cells) that are highly efficient in metastasis. In recent years Wang’s lab discovered that gene expression can be directly upregulated by stretching the chromatin via applying forces to integrins in a living cell and revealed that the force-induced gene activation depends on histone modifications of the chromatin. Wang lab, working with collaborators, provided experimental evidence that malignant tumor cell softness is critical in cancer malignancy and dormancy. Wang and colleagues developed a rigidified small molecule of synthetic retinoid (a US patent was issued) that efficiently inhibits malignant tumor-repopulating cell metastasis to the lungs in mice models with little toxicity. Wang and colleagues developed a magnetic microrobot probe that can quantify 3D tractions and stiffness in the same location of an embryo or the tumor tissue. Most recently Wang lab revealed chromatin-stretching dependent nuclear basis of mechanomemory (long-term effects after force cessation) in the chromatin and in the nucleoplasm in living cells.
Host: Peter Wang
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 109
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Carla Stanard
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.
