Programmable Materials for Mechanobiology
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2011) | Viewed by 42230
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In vitro studies have begun to elucidate the principles through which extracellular matrix (ECM) behavior supports and regulates morphogenesis. In recent years, engineered two- and three-dimensional substrates and scaffolds have provided increasingly powerful tools with which to investigate the relationships between cell mechanical behavior and ECM composition and organization. As engineered in vitro environments become more accurate biochemical and biophysical tools for investigating and modeling in vivo environments, the critical next step for many areas of cell biomechanics and mechanobiology will be incorporation of increased programmable physical functionality into the environments.
This special issue on programmable materials for mechanobiology focuses on research in which material functionality is driving advances in the understanding and application of mechanobiology. Continued progress in this important area of interdisciplinary effort requires diverse contributions from the fields of materials science, soft matter physics, mechanobiology, cell and molecular biology, developmental biology, biomedical imaging, computational modeling, and tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Dr. James H. Henderson
Guest Editor
Keywords
- biomaterials
- soft matter
- cell culture
- three-dimensional culture
- scaffold
- substrate
- ECM (extracellular matrix)
- mechanobiology
- mechanotransduction
- biomechanics
- computational modeling
- stem and progenitor cells
- tissue differentiation
- tissue engineering