How Cells Live under Fluid Pressure

A central dogma in cell migration is that chemotaxis (Brownian, osmotic) and durotaxis (material stiffness) are key extracellular drivers of cell migration. Cells live in an environment filled with viscous flowing fluid. We argue that extracellular fluid properties not only control rate of diffusion, but shapes physical forces that cell experiences. It is therefore plausible that fluid mechanical forces precede other taxis.

We focus our effort in developing new technological advances in numerical modelling, devices, imaging technologies, and biomaterials to open new ways to understand the role of fluid pressure at all levels of a living biological system. Our goal is to develop new biological understanding of fluid-mediated mechanical forces (hydrostatic, hydrodynamic) and its prominence in promoting biological processes such as cell migration and aggregation, influencing gene expressions that reshape tissue and influence organ development, as well as informing disease progression in metastasis and thrombosis.