Friday, October 21st, 2022, 12 PM – 1 PM
Engineering IV, 38-138

The cell nucleus as a mechanosensor of amplified strain

Corey Neu
Donnelly Family Endowed Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Colorado Boulder

ABSTRACT: An understanding of the micromechanical environment of tissue will improve the
ability to quantify cellular responses to physical stimuli, track the progression of tissue
damage or degeneration, and fabricate and evaluate biomimetic biomaterials. My lab is
dedicated to the study of multiscale biomechanics, mechanobiology, and regeneration of soft
biological tissues, with an emphasis placed on the design of tools to assess diseases of the
musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. Here, we will present our efforts to implement
novel imaging techniques, involving MRI and optical microscopy, to noninvasively describe
internal patterns of strain and material properties throughout the volume of tissues and
single cells. We will highlight recent achievements, including hybrid methods to characterize
deformation in tissues, in addition to challenges for single cell measures in vivo. Preliminary
biomechanical data in musculoskeletal and cardiac tissues and single cells, with direct
implications for mechanobiology and regeneration, will be presented.

BIO: Dr. Corey Neu received completed his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the University of
California at Davis. He was a postdoctoral scientist with A. Hari Reddi in the Center for
Regeneration and Repair at UC Davis Medical Center and was co-advised by Kyriakos
Komvopoulos in mechanical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. He was
assistant and associate professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue
University. He is now the Donnelly Family Endowed Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the
University of Colorado Boulder. He also serves as Founding Graduate Chair of the Program in
Biomedical Engineering and is a member of the BioFrontiers Institute.

Pizza will be served.

Host: Neil Lin, MAE, neillin@g.ucla.edu