Cellular & Tissue Mechanics

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Project list

Mechanics of epithelial monolayers

Using freely suspended epithelial monolayers clamped to a uniaxial testing device, we can measure the rheology of the tissue and correlate the response to the underpinning biological processes (to some extent).

Tissue Tectonics

Using information about tissue scale deformations and cell level deformations, we derive a new quantitative definition of cell intercalation and use it to characterise tissue morphogenesis.

References:

G.B. Blanchard, A.J. Kabla, N.L. Schultz, L.C. Butler, B. Sanson, N. Gorfinkiel, L. Mahadevan and R.J. Adams,
Tissue tectonics: morphogenetic strain rates, cell shape change and intercalation,
Nature Methods 6:458-464 (2009),
doi:10.1038/nmeth.1327

L.C. Butler, G.B. Blanchard, A.J. Kabla, N.J. Lawrence, D.P. Welchman, L. Mahadevan, R.J. Adams and B. Sanson,
Cell shape changes indicate a role for extrinsic tensile forces in Drosophila germ-band extension,
Nature Cell Biology 11(7):859-64 (2009),
doi:10.1038/ncb1894

A.J. Kabla, G.B. Blanchard, R.J. Adams and L. Mahadevan,
Bridging cell and tissue behaviour in embryomorphogenesis,
Book chapter in Cell Mechanics: From Single Scale-Based Models to Multiscale Modeling, Taylor and Francis ed., pages 351-377 (2010),
doi:ISBN 9781420094541

A.R. Harris, L. Peter, J. Bellis, B. Baum, A.J. Kabla, and G.T. Charras,
Characterizing the mechanics of cultured cell monolayers,
PNAS 109:16449-16454 (2012),
doi:10.1073/pnas.1213301109

A.R. Harris, J. Bellis, N. Khalilgharibi, T. Wyatt, B. Baum, A.J. Kabla and G.T. Charras,
Generating suspended cell monolayers for mechanobiological studies,
Nature Protocols 8:2516–2530 (2013),
doi:10.1038/nprot.2013.151

T.P.J. Wyatt, A.R. Harris, M. Lam, Q. Cheng, J. Bellis, A. Dimitracopoulos, A.J. Kabla, G.T. Charras and B. Baum,
Emergence of homeostatic epithelial packing and stress dissipation through divisions oriented along the long cell axis,
PNAS 112:5726-5731 (2015),
doi:10.1073/pnas.1420585112

N. Khalilgharibi, J. Fouchard, P. Recho, G. Charras and A. Kabla,
The dynamic mechanical properties of cellularised aggregates,
Current Opinion in Cell Biology 42:113–120 (2016),
doi:10.1016/j.ceb.2016.06.003

N. Khalilgharibi, J. Fouchard, N. Asadipour, R. Barrientos, M. Duda, A. Bonfanti, A. Yonis, A. Harris, P. Mosaffa, Y. Fujita, A. Kabla, Y. Mao, B. Baum, J. Muñoz, M. Miodownik and G. Charras,
Stress relaxation in epithelial monolayers is controlled by the actomyosin cortex,
Nature Physics 15:839–847 (2019),
doi:10.1038/s41567-019-0516-6

T.P.J. Wyatt, J. Fouchard, A. Lisica, N. Khalilgharibi, B. Baum, P. Recho, A.J. Kabla, G.T. Charras,
Actomyosin Controls Planarity and Folding of Epithelia in Response to Compression,
Nature Materials 19(1):109-117 (2020),
doi:10.1038/s41563-019-0461-x

A. Bonfanti, J. Fouchard, N. Khalilgharibi, G. Charras and A. Kabla,
A unified rheological model for cells and cellularised materials,
Royal Society Open Science 7:190920 (2020),
doi:10.1098/rsos.190920

J. Fouchard, T.P.J. Wyatt, A. Proag, A. Lisica, N. Khalilgharibi, P. Recho, M. Suzanne, A. Kabla, G. Charras,
Curling of Epithelial Monolayers Reveals Coupling Between Active Bending and Tissue Tension,
PNAS 117(17):9377-9383 (2020),
doi:10.1073/pnas.1917838117

P. Recho, J. Fouchard, T. Wyatt, N. Khalilgharibi, G. Charras and A. Kabla,
Tug-of-war between stretching and bending in living cell sheets,
Physical Review E 102:012401 (2020),
doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.102.012401

D. Bhattacharya, J. Zhong, S. Tavakoli, A. Kabla and P. Matsudaira,
Strain maps characterize the symmetry of convergence and extension patterns during zebrafish gastrulation,
Scientific Reports volume 11:19357 (2021),
doi:10.1038/s41598-021-98233-z

A. Bonfanti, J. Duque, A. Kabla and G. Charras,
Fracture in living tissues,
Trends in Cell Biology 32:537-551 (2022),
doi:10.1016/j.tcb.2022.01.005

A. Lisica, J. Fouchard, M. Kelkar, T. Wyatt, J. Duque, A.-B. Ndiaye, A. Bonfanti, B. Baum, A.J. Kabla, G.T. Charras,
Tension at intercellular junctions is necessary for accurate orientation of cell division in the epithelium plane,
PNAS 119:49 (2022),
doi:10.1073/pnas.2201600119

A. Kabla, B. Ladoux and J.-M. Di Meglio,
Editorial - Tissue Mechanics,
The European Physical Journal E, 45:90 (2022),
doi:10.1140/epje/s10189-022-00240-z

J. Duque, A. Bonfanti, J. Fouchard, E. Ferber, A. Harris, A.J. Kabla, G.T. Charras,
Fracture in Living Cell Monolayers,
Preprint (2023),
doi:10.1101/2023.01.05.522736