All multicellular organisms share a universal biophysical trait: they are composed of individual cells that move and adhere to one another. Similar to residents in an apartment building, cells exist within a highly social microenvironment, constrained by physical barriers. Cells must generate and regulate forces in order to interact and bind. While tremendous efforts have been made to determine the biochemical rules governing multicellularity, the dynamics of biological forces remain incomplete, limiting the translation of this knowledge into modern 3D biomanufacturing technologies.

Our team aims to comprehensively understand how fluid forces control and regulate multicellularity to form living tissue. Through innovative experimental approaches, including computational modeling, 4D volumetric imaging, and multi-scale photolithography, we aim to define the fluidic force laws that govern cell-to-tissue organization.