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SUMMARY:Matrix elasticity directs stem cell lineage – Better (polymeric)
  materials for Better biology - Professor Dennis Discher\, Biophysical Eng
 . &amp\; Nanobiopolymers Lab\, University of Pennsylvania
DTSTART:20090521T150000Z
DTEND:20090521T160000Z
UID:TALK17685@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Catherine Jordan
DESCRIPTION:http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~discher/ded.html\n\nCells make a nu
 mber of key decisions by actively applying forces to the objects that they
  ‘touch’.  Naive mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from human bone marrow 
 will be shown to specify lineage and commit to phenotypes with extreme sen
 sitivity to tissue level elasticity. Soft matrices that mimic brain appear
  neurogenic\, stiffer matrices that mimic muscle are myogenic\, and compar
 atively rigid matrices that mimic collagenous bone prove osteogenic.  Inhi
 bition of myosin blocks all elasticity directed lineage specification – 
 without strongly perturbing many other aspects of cell function and shape.
   A “Cysteine Shotgun”\, Mass Spectrometry-based proteomic method for 
 in situ probing of the ‘foldome’ reveals distinct structural differenc
 es attributable to unfolding and/or dissociation of cellular proteins. The
  results have significant implications for understanding physical effects 
 of the in vivo microenvironment around cells and also for use of materials
  in biological studies and therapeutic applications of stem cells.\n\nA. E
 ngler\, S. Sen\, H.L. Sweeney\, and D.E. Discher.  Matrix elasticity direc
 ts stem cell lineage specification. Cell 126: 677-689 (2006).  C.P. Johnso
 n\, H-Y. Tang\, C. Carag\, D.W. Speicher\, and D.E. Discher.  Forced unfol
 ding of proteins within cells.  Science 317: 663-666 (2007).  \n
LOCATION:Wolfson Lecture Theatre\,  Department of Chemistry
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