Promotionsvortrag Physik: „Dynamic traction forces in single and collective cell systems“

Ankündigung des Promotionsvortrags von: Herrn David Böhringer

Cells use mechanical forces to interact with their environment, thereby enabling essential functions such as migration and wound healing. In this talk, I will present methods to measure dynamic traction forces in 3D biopolymers and apply them to study how cells interact with their environment.

First, I will focus on immune cell migration. Immune cells must migrate through dense tissue to reach their targets, such as a site of inflammation or a tumor. They are thought to migrate in an amoeboid mode with little to no matrix adhesions or traction forces. l present a method to measure the dynamic traction forces of fast migrating immune cells in 3D biopolymer networks, and show that immune cells can temporarily switch to a mesenchymal mode, using matrix adhesion and traction forces to migrate through dense matrices.

Second, I will focus on collective cell systems, such as multicellular spheroids. Collective cell behavior is driven by feedback between cells and the matrix, which is important e.g. for wound healing or cancer progression. Studying force generation in these large systems is challenging, how-ever. By exploiting spherical geometry, I will demonstrate that spheroid forces can be measured with high temporal resolution and throughput. Applying this method to fibroblast spheroids revealed highly coordinated, periodically pulsating forces that are synchronized between neighboring spheroids over long distances. I show that these force pulses are regulated by integrin-dependent mechanochemical feedback mechanisms involving the Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase (ERK) pathway.

(Vortrag auf Englisch)

Dem Vortrag schließt sich eine Diskussion von 15 Minuten an. Vortrag und Diskussion sind öffentlich. Diesen Verfahrensteilen folgt ein nicht öffentliches Rigorosum von 45 Minuten.