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This volume examines interactions between cells and their local extracellular environment, exploring how these may mediate cell behavior. Topics include integrin-ligand interactions; cooperative mechanisms of cell-matrix interactions and quantitative methods.

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Mechanobiology of Cell-Matrix Interactions focuses on characterization and modeling of interactions between cells and their local extracellular environment, exploring how these interactions may mediate cell behavior. Studies of cell-matrix interactions rely on integrating engineering, (molecular and cellular) biology, and imaging disciplines. Recent advances in the field have begun to unravel our understanding of how cells gather information from their surrounding environment, and how they interrogate such information during the cell fate decision making process. Topics include adhesive and integrin-ligand interactions; extracellular influences on cell biology and behavior; cooperative mechanisms of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions; the mechanobiology of pathological processes; (multi-scale) modeling approaches to describe the complexity or cell-matrix interactions; and quantitative methods required for such experimental and modeling studies.

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Part I: The Extracellular Matrix and Tools for Exploring Cell-Matrix Mechanobiology: ECM Overview.- 3D Full-Field Measurement Technique for Large Deformations in Soft Matrices by Fibroblasts.- Magnetic Twisting Cytometry to Probe Adhesion Site Dynamics and the Cytoskeleton.- Probing Cell Mechanics with Light.- Optical Coherence Tomography.- Part II: Mechanisms of Cell Adhesion, Mechanotransduction and Cell Behavior: Nanomechanics of Cell Adhesion: from Single Molecules to Tissues.- Probing Cellular Responses to Substrate Rigidity and Geometry.- Matrix Mechanics and Cell Traction Regulate Integrin-Adhesion Ligand Bond Formation.- Microtubule Deformation and Src Activation.- Integrin Activation and angiogenesis.- Biophysical parameters affecting cell biology.- Part III: Cooperative mechanobiology, cooperative cell Behavior and Mechanics: Modulation of Endothelial Cell-Cell and Cell-Matrix Interactions Using Substrate Chemistry and Mechanics.- Effects of Substrate Chemistry and Mechanics on Large Scale Stem Cell Culture.- Cooperative Behavior of Cells During Wound Healing.- Mechanobiological Functions of Desmosomes and Filament Networks in a Epidermal Keratinocyte Sheet.- Part IV: Mechano-Pathology of Cancer and Disease: Integrin-Cadherin Cross Talk and Cell Motility and Invasiveness.- Cell Mechanics and Disease in Red Blood Cells.- Biophysical Parameters Affecting Cancer/Metastasis.- Cancer Mechanobiology.- Measuring Surface Adhesion of Cancer Cells.- Studying Cancer from a Biomechanics Perspective.

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