In vivo mechanics during tissue morphogenesis – MorFor

--

ongoing project

Tissue engineering and understanding of the mechanics during tissue morphogenesis

ongoing

Mechanical forces are as important as genes and chemical signals for the control of embryological development, morphogenesis and tissue patterning. However, we still lack quantitative approaches to study the mechanics of cells and tissues in vivo and the mechanisms of force generation are still poorly understood. In this context, our project aims at developing, adapting and applying a set of physical methods to measure the fields of forces and deformations and determine the viscoelastic properties of a tissue in vivo over different lengthscales (subcellular, cellular and muticellular). Using this approach, we will explore the patterning of cell shape oscillations and the coupling between contractile events in a coherent sheet of cells (epithelial layer of early Drosophila embryo), which represent widespread, yet not well understood mechanisms for tissue morphogenesis. We will also investigate the potential role of calcium in triggering/controlling contractile events. We expect that our findings will have implications in basic biological sciences but also in tissue engineering.