Luigi Preziosi (Politecnico di Torino)

When
23 Feb 2022
13:00

Title: Modelling Cell Reorientation under Stretch: A Mechanobiological Example

Abstract: The active response of cells to mechanical cues due to their interaction with the environment has been of increasing interest, since it is involved in many physiological phenomena, pathologies, and in tissue engineering. In particular, several experiments have shown that, if a substrate with overlying cells is cyclically stretched, they will reorient to reach a well-defined angle between their major axis and the main stretching direction. The aim of this talk will be to investigate the interplay between mechanics and cell organization. It will be shown that cells organise their internal structure to minimize an elastic energy that then drives this reorientation process. Viscoelastic effects will then be included to explain the dependence of the appearance of the phenomenon as a function of oscillation frequency. Finally, randomness is taken into account and discussed on the basis of a Fokker-Plack equation.

About Luigi Preziosi: http://calvino.polito.it/~preziosi/

Watch the talk: https://youtu.be/vukF9DhUy6s