Forum Members
We have gathered several responses from our survey, where researchers interested in this field have shared their projects and expertise. This page will be regularly updated as more responses come in, so please stay tuned.
To contribute your own research, please complete the form:
You can also reach out to us with any feedback or enquiries at mechbio@listserv.manchester.ac.uk.
Member projects and expertise
Michal Dudek
Post-Doctoral Research Associate, School of Biological Sciences
Relevant Project Title: The effect of exercise on the circadian clock in cartilage and intervertebral discs. The effect of matrix stiffness on the cellular circadian clock.
Summary of the project and research interest: Daily rhythms in mammalian behaviour and physiology are generated by a transcription-translation feedback loop of the circadian clock. Robust daily oscillations of the circadian clock have been shown to be essential for tissue homeostasis and longevity of organisms. Genetic or environmental disruption of the circadian clock lead to accelerated aging and degeneration of tissues. We are interested in mechanosensitivity of the circadian clock. We and others have shown that both the dynamic mechanical loading, resulting from daily activity, and the stiffness of extracellular matrix can influence the circadian clock and therefore regulate its downstream pathways. We are interested in which pathways convey the information about physical forces experienced by the cells to the circadian clock as well as what are the consequences of misregulation of the signalling. Additionally we try to determine whether the clock may also gate response to mechanical loading depending on the time of day in connection with shift work and jet lag. We investigate these questions through combination of in vivo treadmill running experiments on reporter mice, ex vivo and in vitro mechanical loading, live confocal microscopy imaging and “omics” technologies.
Clare Buckley
Senior Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences
Relevant Project Title: Optogenetic investigation of force propagation during zebrafish neural tube morphogenesis
Summary of the project and research interest: The Buckley lab is tackling how mechanics and signalling work together during morphogenesis. In the longer term, we are interested in understanding how are the fundamental mechanisms behind 3D tissue organization relevant to disease and can we manipulate these mechanisms for therapeutics and bioengineering? We have developed an optogenetic approach within zebrafish embryos to locally manipulate actomyosin contractility. We use this approach to determine how forces are propagated within developing tissue and to specifically probe the role of actomyosin contractility in morphogenetic processes such as lumen opening. We have installed a light patterning digital mirror device system in the bioimaging facility to enable precise optogenetic experiments in live embryos.
Jim Warwicker
Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences
Relevant Project Title: Structure/function analyses for biological function, in particular pH-dependence and whether it plays a role alongside signal transduction in mechanobiology
Summary of the project and research interest: Structure/function analyses for biological function, in particular pH-dependence and whether it plays a role alongside signal transduction in mechanobiology.
Davide Verdolino
Research Associate, School of Biological Sciences
Relevant Project Title: Effects of Scaffold Stiffness of Cells Mechanobiology and Chronobiology in 3D
Summary of the project and research interest: Seeding of cells in a mechanically tunable hydrogel to study the effects of stiffness on cell phenotype and ECM synthesis in 3D mimicking aged and diseased ECM.
Lukas Weber
PhD Student, School of Engineering
Relevant Project Title: Regeneration of the rotator cuff tendon-to-bone interface using biofabrication
Summary of the project and research interest: In my project, I aim to create a bioactive scaffold aiding in the repair of the tendon-to-bone interface after rupture. For its design, it is key to understand the mechanical requirements both on a macro- (construct stability) and microscale (stimulation of cells).
Alex Koch
Research Associate, School of Biological Sciences
Relevant Project Title: ECM Mechanosensors, Novel tension sensors for in vivo applications
Summary of the project and research interest: I am developing tension sensors for measuring mechanical forces within the extracellular matrix (ECM) at the nanoscale. These sensors use fluorophore-linked constructs that respond to force via changes in fluorescence due to a change in conformation, enabling quantitative readouts of mechanical tension in biologically relevant 3D environments.
My work focuses on designing and synthesising linkers with different mechanical properties, including polyethylene glycol (PEG) and elastic peptide sequences, to span a range of force regimes. I employ click chemistry-based strategies to functionalize and conjugate sensor components, allowing for flexibility in scaffold design and targeting.
Sensor performance is assessed using confocal microscopy, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy FCS, and super-resolution imaging techniques such as dSTORM, as well as light-sheet microscopy for volumetric imaging in 3D cultures. These tools support my broader interest in studying mechanotransduction for both cell–matrix and matrix–matrix interactions that are mechanically dynamic but remain difficult to quantify with current methods.
Joe Swift
Principal Investigator, School of Biological Sciences
Relevant Project Title: Mechanobiology of ageing / Mechanical and circadian control over cell secretion
Summary of the project and research interest:
- Mechanobiology / biophysics
- Cell nucleus
- Ageing / cellular senescence
- 3D cell culture / synthetic matrix
- Extracellular matrix
- Mass spectrometry proteomics, resolved in time & space
John Robert Davis
Junior group leader, School of Biological Sciences
Relevant Project Title: Understanding how cells allocate metabolic energy to support tissue mechanics
Summary of the project and research interest: My group are interested in understanding how cells fuel forces during morphogenesis and whilst maintaining tissue homeostasis. We employ both in vitro and in vivo studies to examine this fundamental question. In vitro, we fabricate of 2D and 3D tissues using photolithography for micropatterning and 3D printed soft-lithography to modulate tissue morphology, the mechanical environment and morphogenesis and assess how this alters energy metabolism within cells and across tissues. We examine metabolism using fluorescent bio-sensors of key metabolites and examining mitochondrial dynamics. In vivo, we employ Drosophila embryogenesis to examine the temporal control of metabolism with regards to morphogenesis and the consequences on development when this is perturbed. Our goal is to generate a mathematical model that allows us to predict energy requirements of cells within tissues based on tissue morphology, dynamics and environment to inform the design of organoids for drug development and screening.
Adam Byron
Lecturer in Bioscience / Cell Adhesion Networks Group Leader, School of Biological Sciences
Relevant Project Title: Regulation of gene expression by a mechanosensitive nuclear protein network
Summary of the project and research interest: The research of the Byron Lab aims to understand how cellular interactions with, and mechanoresponses to, the tumour microenvironment elicit signals at the nucleus that control fundamental aspects of cancer cell behaviour, including regulation of gene expression. We use systems-level approaches, integrating state-of-the-art proteomics, sequencing, bioinformatics, functional cell biology, super-resolution imaging and cancer models, to discover new properties of cancer cell adhesion networks.
We recently found that transcription can be regulated by a network of cell adhesion proteins that localise to the nucleus in cells, a new conceptual framework termed the nucleo-adhesome. Our current research is building on this concept, investigating unexpected roles for adhesion proteins at the nucleus in regulating mechanosensitive gene expression. We believe that nuclear adhesion proteins are a missing link in our understanding of the regulation of mechanotransduction and gene expression.
