New technologies in cancer mechanobiology

Professor Daphne Weihs, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

Associate Professor Daphne Weihs is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology since 2006. She obtained her BSc, MSc, and PhD (2004) at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Technion. She did her post-graduate research at the Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine, Medical School, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA, 2004–2006). Professor Weihs is the head of the Scientific Committee of the Israel Society of Medical and Biological Engineering (ISMBE) since 2015. Her focus is the mechanobiology of cells; the stiffness and dynamics of cells and their mechanical interactions with the microenvironment, in the contexts of cancer progression and in wound prevention and healing. She has recently developed a mechanobiology-based approach to diagnose cancer and predict metastases.

Dr Mike Murrell, Yale University, USA

Murrell’s interests are in understanding the mechanical principles that drive major cellular life processes through the design and engineering of novel biomimetic systems. To this end, he develops simplified and tractable experimental models of the mechanical machinery within the cell with the goal of reproducing complex cellular behaviour, such as cell division and cell migration. Murrell then combines these ‘bottom-up’ experimental models with concepts from soft matter physics to gain a fundamental understanding of the influence of mechanics on cell and tissue behaviour. In parallel, he hopes to identify new design principles from biology which can be used to create novel technologies.

Dr Umber Cheema, University College London, UK

Dr Cheema is a senior lecturer in tissue engineering, and head of education for the Division of Surgery at UCL. Her research interests include engineering vascular networks in 3D engineered tissues to further understand the role native matrix density and composition have on this biological process. Her research also focuses on controlling elements of collagen architecture to build biomimetic tissues in vitro. In particular, by studying mechanisms which control collagen fibril alignment, diameter and density. Her work on engineering tissues has resulted in the development of 3D in vitro models of solid tumours or tumouroids. Here the spatial architecture of a tumour and its surrounding stroma has been reproduced in vitro, with evidence of tumour invasion into surrounding 'normal' tissue. Engineered tumouroids include epithelial cancers and sarcoma's. Her collaborative work includes engineering basic tissue models which are subjected to decompression regimes to mimic the 'bends' in diving. Experimental data has been modeled to further our understanding of how bubbles nucleate, grow and coalesce in tissues during decompression.

Dr Chris Toseland, University of Kent, UK

Chris Toseland (CT) is an MRC Career Development Award holder at the University of Kent. The research group was established in 2015 with a focus upon the regulation of motor proteins in transcription. CT gained his PhD from the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in biochemistry/biophysics before applying single molecule methods during post-doctoral positions at the LMU Munich and Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. The Toseland group now applies a range of biophysical and single molecule imaging methods. The group also develops novel methodologies and was recently awarded a Cancer Research UK Pioneer Award for the development of new mechanobiology tools.

Professor Daphne Weihs, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

Associate Professor Daphne Weihs is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology since 2006. She obtained her BSc, MSc, and PhD (2004) at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Technion. She did her post-graduate research at the Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine, Medical School, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA, 2004–2006). Professor Weihs is the head of the Scientific Committee of the Israel Society of Medical and Biological Engineering (ISMBE) since 2015. Her focus is the mechanobiology of cells; the stiffness and dynamics of cells and their mechanical interactions with the microenvironment, in the contexts of cancer progression and in wound prevention and healing. She has recently developed a mechanobiology-based approach to diagnose cancer and predict metastases.

Dr Mike Murrell, Yale University, USA

Murrell’s interests are in understanding the mechanical principles that drive major cellular life processes through the design and engineering of novel biomimetic systems. To this end, he develops simplified and tractable experimental models of the mechanical machinery within the cell with the goal of reproducing complex cellular behaviour, such as cell division and cell migration. Murrell then combines these ‘bottom-up’ experimental models with concepts from soft matter physics to gain a fundamental understanding of the influence of mechanics on cell and tissue behaviour. In parallel, he hopes to identify new design principles from biology which can be used to create novel technologies.

Dr Umber Cheema, University College London, UK

Dr Cheema is a senior lecturer in tissue engineering, and head of education for the Division of Surgery at UCL. Her research interests include engineering vascular networks in 3D engineered tissues to further understand the role native matrix density and composition have on this biological process. Her research also focuses on controlling elements of collagen architecture to build biomimetic tissues in vitro. In particular, by studying mechanisms which control collagen fibril alignment, diameter and density. Her work on engineering tissues has resulted in the development of 3D in vitro models of solid tumours or tumouroids. Here the spatial architecture of a tumour and its surrounding stroma has been reproduced in vitro, with evidence of tumour invasion into surrounding 'normal' tissue. Engineered tumouroids include epithelial cancers and sarcoma's. Her collaborative work includes engineering basic tissue models which are subjected to decompression regimes to mimic the 'bends' in diving. Experimental data has been modeled to further our understanding of how bubbles nucleate, grow and coalesce in tissues during decompression.

Dr Chris Toseland, University of Kent, UK

Chris Toseland (CT) is an MRC Career Development Award holder at the University of Kent. The research group was established in 2015 with a focus upon the regulation of motor proteins in transcription. CT gained his PhD from the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in biochemistry/biophysics before applying single molecule methods during post-doctoral positions at the LMU Munich and Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. The Toseland group now applies a range of biophysical and single molecule imaging methods. The group also develops novel methodologies and was recently awarded a Cancer Research UK Pioneer Award for the development of new mechanobiology tools.

Dr Chris Dunsby, Imperial College London, UK

Chris Dunsby is a Reader with a joint post between Photonics, Department of Physics and the Centre for Histopathology, Department of Medicine at Imperial. His research interests are centred on the application of photonics and ultrafast laser technology to biomedical imaging with an emphasis on quantitative fluorescence imaging, and include light sheet microscopy, multiphoton microscopy, multiparameter fluorescence imaging and fluorescence lifetime imaging.

Dr Shu Jia, Stony Brook University, the State University of New York (SUNY), USA

Dr Jia received his BS in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University and PhD in electrical engineering with a minor in physics from Princeton University. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. Dr Jia has been an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at SUNY Stony Brook since 2015. Dr Jia is an recipient of DARPA’s Young Faculty Award and NIH's MIRA Award for Early-Stage Investigators.

Dr Gert-Jan Bakker, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, The Netherlands

Already from his early days Gert-Jan Bakker enjoyed to reveal the unseen, by taking complex machines apart and creating new devices by re-assembling the collected bits and pieces. In 2011, he obtained his PhD in Biophysics at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. He currently works in the group of Peter Friedl at the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (RIMLS, the Netherlands), where he is part of the preclinical and microscopic imaging centre. His current focus is development and application of novel intravital imaging strategies such as third harmonics generation microscopy, to visualize tumour cell dynamics into the context of their surrounding tissue structures in vivo. Other developments are the application of high-energy pulsed excitation sources, for deeper imaging of multiphoton excited fluorescently labelled tumour cells and their micro-environment. Furthermore, he is interested in the application of molecular probes and probes that measure physical properties within the tumour micro-environment.

Dr Shu Jia, Stony Brook University, the State University of New York (SUNY), USA

Dr Jia received his BS in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University and PhD in electrical engineering with a minor in physics from Princeton University. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. Dr Jia has been an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at SUNY Stony Brook since 2015. Dr Jia is an recipient of DARPA’s Young Faculty Award and NIH's MIRA Award for Early-Stage Investigators.

Dr Chris Dunsby, Imperial College London, UK

Chris Dunsby is a Reader with a joint post between Photonics, Department of Physics and the Centre for Histopathology, Department of Medicine at Imperial. His research interests are centred on the application of photonics and ultrafast laser technology to biomedical imaging with an emphasis on quantitative fluorescence imaging, and include light sheet microscopy, multiphoton microscopy, multiparameter fluorescence imaging and fluorescence lifetime imaging.

Dr Gert-Jan Bakker, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, The Netherlands

Already from his early days Gert-Jan Bakker enjoyed to reveal the unseen, by taking complex machines apart and creating new devices by re-assembling the collected bits and pieces. In 2011, he obtained his PhD in Biophysics at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. He currently works in the group of Peter Friedl at the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (RIMLS, the Netherlands), where he is part of the preclinical and microscopic imaging centre. His current focus is development and application of novel intravital imaging strategies such as third harmonics generation microscopy, to visualize tumour cell dynamics into the context of their surrounding tissue structures in vivo. Other developments are the application of high-energy pulsed excitation sources, for deeper imaging of multiphoton excited fluorescently labelled tumour cells and their micro-environment. Furthermore, he is interested in the application of molecular probes and probes that measure physical properties within the tumour micro-environment.

Dr Joe Swift, Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research, University of Manchester, UK

Joe holds a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research (University of Manchester, UK). He is recognized for his post-doctoral work examining the effects of nuclear mechanical properties on the regulation of stem cells (Swift et al. Science 2013) and cell migration (Harada et al. J. Cell Biol. 2014), highlighting the key role of lamin proteins. He has developed applications of mass spectrometry proteomics to study whole-cell, nuclear and extracellular components (Swift et al. Nucleus 2013; Majkut et al. Curr. Biol. 2013). The recently established Swift lab currently examines how tissue mechanics and communication between cells and matrix change in ageing, applying combinations of biophysics and ‘-omics’ methodologies.

Dr Sergey Plotnikov, University of Toronto, Canada

Professor Xavier Trepat, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Spain

Xavier Trepat was trained in Physics and Engineering at the University of Barcelona. In 2004 he obtained his PhD from the Medical School at the University of Barcelona. He then joined the Program in Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences at Harvard University as a postdoctoral researcher. In January 2011 he became an ICREA Research Professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). Trepat’s research aims to understand how cells and tissues grow, move, invade and regenerate in a variety of processes in health and disease. To achieve this, he has developed and patented different technologies to measure cellular properties at the micro- and nanoscales. He has then applied these technologies to identify fundamental mechanisms in cell biology and biophysics.

Dr Joe Swift, Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research, University of Manchester, UK

Joe holds a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research (University of Manchester, UK). He is recognized for his post-doctoral work examining the effects of nuclear mechanical properties on the regulation of stem cells (Swift et al. Science 2013) and cell migration (Harada et al. J. Cell Biol. 2014), highlighting the key role of lamin proteins. He has developed applications of mass spectrometry proteomics to study whole-cell, nuclear and extracellular components (Swift et al. Nucleus 2013; Majkut et al. Curr. Biol. 2013). The recently established Swift lab currently examines how tissue mechanics and communication between cells and matrix change in ageing, applying combinations of biophysics and ‘-omics’ methodologies.

Dr Sergey Plotnikov, University of Toronto, Canada

Professor Xavier Trepat, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Spain

Xavier Trepat was trained in Physics and Engineering at the University of Barcelona. In 2004 he obtained his PhD from the Medical School at the University of Barcelona. He then joined the Program in Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences at Harvard University as a postdoctoral researcher. In January 2011 he became an ICREA Research Professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). Trepat’s research aims to understand how cells and tissues grow, move, invade and regenerate in a variety of processes in health and disease. To achieve this, he has developed and patented different technologies to measure cellular properties at the micro- and nanoscales. He has then applied these technologies to identify fundamental mechanisms in cell biology and biophysics.

Dr Matthias Eibauer, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Matthias Eibauer received his diploma in Physics at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Germany in 2007. In 2011 he obtained his PhD from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Germany, under the supervision of Professor Baumeister. Between 2011 and 2016, he was a postdoctoral fellow under the guidance of Professor Medalia at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Since 2016, Matthias has been a senior scientist at the University of Zurich.

Dr Fabian Spill, University of Birmingham, UK

Fabian Spill trained as a mathematician and theoretical physicist and started to apply mathematical models to solve biological problems when he worked as a postdoc with Helen Byrne and Philip Maini. Since his second postdoc in the experimental bioengineering labs of Roger Kamm and Muhammad Zaman, Fabian started to collaborate closely with experimentalists on modelling mechanochemical pathways or the impact of cell shape on cell behaviour. He is now a Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at the University of Birmingham. Some of his recent work includes a stochastic-mechanical model of extravasation, a model of YAP/TAZ signal integration and a model of TGFbeta/TNFalpha synergies on MMP production in migrating cells.

Professor Guillaume Charras, University College London, UK

Professor Guillaume Charras obtained an MSc in mechanical engineering from Ecole Centrale de Paris and Georgia Institute of Technology in 1997. He then went on to study for a PhD in biochemistry from UCL between 1999 and 2002. Professor Charras did a post-doc with Tim Mitchison at Harvard Medical School between 2003 and 2007. Since 2007, he has been a group leader at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL.

Dr Matthias Eibauer, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Matthias Eibauer received his diploma in Physics at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Germany in 2007. In 2011 he obtained his PhD from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Germany, under the supervision of Professor Baumeister. Between 2011 and 2016, he was a postdoctoral fellow under the guidance of Professor Medalia at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Since 2016, Matthias has been a senior scientist at the University of Zurich.

Professor Guillaume Charras, University College London, UK

Professor Guillaume Charras obtained an MSc in mechanical engineering from Ecole Centrale de Paris and Georgia Institute of Technology in 1997. He then went on to study for a PhD in biochemistry from UCL between 1999 and 2002. Professor Charras did a post-doc with Tim Mitchison at Harvard Medical School between 2003 and 2007. Since 2007, he has been a group leader at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL.