Objective
There is growing evidence that mechanical forces emanating from the tissue microenvironment can activate biochemical signalling to control gene expression, in a process known as mechanotransduction, for tissue regeneration and organ development. Importantly disruption of this effect by changes in the microenvironment leads to pathological responses including tissue fibrosis and cancer.
The advent of new force measurement techniques and high-resolution microscopy have made it possible to isolate impacts of mechanics from genetic and chemical factors, giving unprecedented access to investigate fundamental questions on how mechanical cues at the tissue scale affect signalling at a single cell level.
The proposed research aims to reveal the physics of mechanotransduction in the context of multicellular aggregates, focusing on the impact of mechanical forces from multicellular motion and the mechanical feedback from the activation of biochemical signalling. My central hypotheses are: (i) localisation of mechanical stresses by the cell environment instructs transcriptional activation to direct multicellular behaviour and (ii) the gradients of mechanical forces in a growing multicellular aggregate can act as guidance cues for the morphology of growing tissue.
I combine experiments on breast cancer cells of varying degrees of aggressiveness, with multiscale modelling - discrete and continuum simulations - to explain the interconnection of transcriptional activation and multicellular motion. This will fill the gap between biochemistry at the cell level and mechanics at the tissue level and is essential to the understanding of physical mechanisms that lead to healthy behaviour or malfunctioning of tissue, as well as to finding proper therapies for diseases that emerge at tissue scales. Moreover, in a field dominated by genetic and chemical understandings, the outcomes of this project will provide a fresh view based on the biophysics of force transmission across the tissue.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry
- natural sciences physical sciences optics microscopy
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- natural sciences biological sciences biophysics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1165 KOBENHAVN
Denmark
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