Forces in life: mechanotransduction and tissue homeostasis

Host: Professor Steve Lee

Abstract

Epithelia constitute many of the principal barriers in metazoan bodies and are also common sites for disease, notably cancer and inflammation. Yet, the incidence of epithelial disease is remarkably low, given their constant exposure to injurious agents. Therefore, epithelia must have ways to detect potential disturbances and deal with them. It is now apparent that one path for detection is through tissue mechanics and mechanosensing. Cells constantly exert contractile forces on their neighbours through their cell-cell junctions and possess mechanotransduction pathways at those junctions that detect changes in force. Importantly, altered contractility is a hallmark of many forms of cellular disturbance from apoptosis to transformation. Mechanosensing may then be an early-warning system that allows epithelia to detect, and respond to, homeostatic challenges. Conversely, defects in mechanotransduction may predispose epithelia to disease. I will discuss these ideas in the context of how epithelia use mechanotransduction for cell-cell communication.

Biography

Professor Alpha Yap is a 2023 ARC Laureate Fellow. His research seeks to elucidate tissue mechanobiology: understanding how mechanical forces control the behaviour of complex, multicellular tissues in health in disease. He and his lab have been instrumental in elucidating the cellular mechanisms that generate and sense mechanical forces in epithelia, and have identified how these can protect tissue integrity against cell death and cancerous transformation. In his research, he has promoted interdisciplinary collaboration between cell and developmental biologists, engineers, mathematicians and theoretical and experimental physicists. He also has Introduced new technologies to characterize tissue mechanics, including Bayesian Inversion Stress Microscopy and optical tension sensors and promoted the multidisciplinary training of students and post-doctoral researchers. He has led international conferences and the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell Biology. Professor Alpha serves as editor for major international journals. He was Division Head at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience and is a Lifetime Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology.