Next MECABIONIC Seminar

• Next MECABIONIC seminar : the Mechanobiology of epithelial tissues: curvature detection and spatial confinement
• Speaker : Sylvain Gabriele from University of Mons on Monday
• Date : 6th of May at 11am
• Where : at the Conference Room of the LJAD.

Abstract
 
Mechanobiology of epithelial tissues: sensing curvature and spatial confinement.
 
The directed migration of epithelial cell collectives through coordinated movements is key to many physiological and pathological processes and is often study at the level of large confluent monolayers. However, numerous migration processes rely on the migration of small groups of polarized epithelial clusters and their responses to external geometries. In the meantime, the development and functioning of many organisms involve the folding of epithelial monolayers that must adapt to variations in local curvature. Despite their importance on the homeostasis of epithelial systems, spatial confinement and curvature changes are difficult to reproduce, limiting our understanding of these complex mechanisms1. In this presentation, we will first introduce well-defined in vitro systems based on micropatterned adhesive stripes to investigate the migration of small epithelial clusters with well-defined geometries. We will highlight the importance of geometry in defining the migration properties of individual cells2 and cell clusters3, providing a conceptual framework to extract interaction rules from how active systems interact with physical boundaries. In a second part, we will introduce a photopolymerization technique using optical photomasks to form wavy hydrogels, allowing to examine how concave and convex curvatures affect the mechanical properties of epithelial monolayers4,5 and induce nuclear deformations6. We will show that active cell mechanics and nuclear mechanoadaptation are key players of the mechanistic regulation of epithelia to substrate curvature.