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SUMMARY:Understanding the role of the extracellular matrix: from elasticit
 y to viscoelasticity  - Alberto Elosegui-Artola (Francis Crick Institute &
 amp\; King’s College London\, London\, UK)   
DTSTART:20220214T143000Z
DTEND:20220214T153000Z
UID:TALK168989@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Elena Scarpa
DESCRIPTION:The mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM) re
 gulate cellular processes during development\, cancer and wound healing. T
 he vast majority of research efforts in this field have focused on the ECM
 ’s elasticity as a leading determinant of cell and tissue behaviour. We 
 have previously shown the biophysical mechanism which cells sense tissue e
 lasticity and transduce it into downstream signaling and how force transmi
 tted from the ECM to the nucleus is enough to translocate transcriptional 
 regulators to the nucleus. However\, the ECM is not merely elastic but is 
 instead both viscous and elastic. Despite the universality of ECM’s visc
 oelasticity\, how viscoelasticity affects tissue function is unknown. I wi
 ll present our results where we show that the passive viscoelastic propert
 ies of the ECM can regulate multicellular tissues spatial and temporal org
 anization both in breast spheroids and intestinal organoids. By combining 
 computational modelling with experiments\, we confirm that the viscoelasti
 c properties of the matrix regulate spherical tissues symmetry breaking\, 
 invasion and branching. Furthermore\, ECM viscoelasticity controls epithel
 ial to mesenchymal transition and tumour growth both in vitro and in vivo.
  Altogether\, our work demonstrates the role of viscoelasticity in symmetr
 y breaking instabilities associated with fingering\, a fundamental process
  in morphogenesis and oncogenesis\, and suggest ways of controlling tissue
  form using the extracellular matrix. 
LOCATION:Online
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