Category Archives: Publications
Ever wanted to know about the mechanical stress inside and around a tumor? Here are the experiments.
Matrix stiffness affects spheroid invasion, collagen remodeling and the effective reach of stress into the ECM. Klara Beslmüller, Rick Rodrigues de Mercado, Gijsje H. Koenderink, Erik H.J. Danen, Thomas Schmidt The extracellular matrix (ECM) provides structural support to cells thereby … Continue reading
Paper on MechanoBiology of Chemoresistance.
Alessandro’s and Cecilia’s paper in which they investigated how chemoresistance modulates the mechanical phenotype of cells. Altered Mechanobiology of PDAC Cells with Acquired Chemoresistance to Gemcitabine and Paclitaxel. Alessandro Gregori, Cecilia Bergonzini, Mjriam Capula, Rick Rodrigues de Mercado, Erik … Continue reading
Series of papers on PDAC
A series of three papers appeared this week in which we contributed towards therapeutic strategies in pancreatic cancer. A nice summary of results from our collaborative efforts ongoing for quite some years. That all those were accepted within one week … Continue reading
Paper on hexanematic order appeared in Nature Comm.
“Hexanematic crossover in epithelial monolayers depends on cell adhesion and cell density” Julia Eckert, Benoît Ladoux, René-Marc Mège, Luca Giomi & Thomas Schmidt Changes in tissue geometry during developmental processes are associated with collective migration of cells. Recent experimental and … Continue reading
Integrin as prognostic marker
Integrin alpha-2 popped up in a screen of aggressive and chemoresistant PDAC cancers. In this study of Alessandro and Cecilia we validated the results we obtained in the RNA screen with various methods. Again we find a correlation between cell … Continue reading
Molecule counting in STORM
We developed a novel methodology to count the number of molecules in a STORM image. That allowed us to address the stoichiometry of adhesion proteins in focal adhesions. It appeared that the stoichiometry in FAK is independent on the force … Continue reading
From molecule to tissue.
Cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions are governed by interactions between individual molecules. But how does a tissue emerge from those localized and individual events? In this review we summarize our current understanding. Holding it together: when cadherin meets cadherin Arslan, F. … Continue reading
Pericyte mechanics.
Olga’s paper appeared in Stem Cell Reports, reporting on the particular mechanoresponse of pericytes, that might be related to their function. Fibronectin Patches as Anchoring Points for Force Sensing and Transmission in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Pericytes. Pericytes (PCs) … Continue reading
Cells in Hypergravity .
Ever wondered how cells react when you fly them at 20g? Indeed they change their mechanical and other properties. This experiment, driven by Julia, is a ramp-up to our experiment flying on ISS. Hypergravity affects Cell Traction Forces of Fibroblasts … Continue reading
Hemidesmosome mechanics, JCB 219, e201904137
Wang, W., A. Zuidema, L. te Molder, L. Nahidiazar, L. Hoekman, T. Schmidt, S. Coppola, and A. Sonnenberg. 2020. Hemidesmosomes modulate force generation via focal adhesions. The Journal of Cell Biology 219(2). [DOI] Abstract Hemidesmosomes are specialized cell-matrix adhesion structures … Continue reading
