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BME Seminar: David Mooney, Viscoelasticity: cell populations to single cells

David Mooney, Ph.D., School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Wyss Institute, Harvard University

River Campus, Robert B. Goergen Hall, Sloan Auditorium (Room 101)

Abstract

Current mechanotransduction studies focus on the role of stiffness on cell behavior, but tissues are typically viscoelastic.  We have developed materials that allow changes in mechanical properties to be decoupled from changes in gel architecture and adhesion ligand presentation, to study the impact of biomaterial stiffness and stress-relaxation on stem cells.  To address the impact of these properties at the single cell level, a microfluidic-based method for encapsulating single cells in a thin layer of hydrogel has been developed.