Cytoskeletal Mechanics

Dr Mohammad Reza Kaazempur Mofrad is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Department of Bioengineering. His research at the Mofrad Laboratory is focused around understanding the principles underlying cellular mechanics, rheology and mechanotransduction, as well as the multiscale biomechanical processes underlying cardiovascular tissue mechanotransduction involved in diseases like aortic valve calcification and arterial atherosclerosis. Before joining the faculty at Berkeley, Dr Mofrad was a Principal Research Scientist at MIT for nearly two years. He is the recipient of the Partner in Excellence Award from Partners HealthCare System, Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also the co-editor of Cellular Mechanotransduction. Roger D. Kamm has been on the faculty at MIT since receiving his PhD in 1977 and now holds a joint appointment in the Biological Engineering and Mechanical Engineering Departments. Current research activities in the Kamm Laboratory at MIT include tissue engineering and microfluidics, cellular rheology and molecular mechanics. He is currently the Chair of the US National Committee on Biomechanics and the World Council on Biomechanics and he is Director of the Global Enterprise for MicroMechanics and Molecular Medicine. Kamm has a long-standing interest in bioengineering education, directs a NIH-funded biomechanics training program, co-chaired the committee to form MIT's new undergraduate major in biological engineering and helped to develop MIT's course on molecular, cellular and tissue biomechanics.

1. Introduction and the biological basis for cell mechanics Mohammad R. K. Mofrad and Roger Kamm; 2. Experimental measurements of intracellular mechanics Paul Janmey and Christoph Schmidt; 3. The cytoskeleton as a soft glassy material Jeffrey Fredberg and Ben Fabry; 4. Continuum elastic or viscoelastic models for the cell Mohammad R. K. Mofrad, Helene Karcher and Roger Kamm; 5. Multiphasic models of cell mechanics Farshid Guuilak, Mansoor A. Haider, Lori A. Setton, Tod A. Laursen and Frank P. T. Baaijens; 6. Models of cytoskeletal mechanics based on tensegrity Dimitrije Stamenovic; 7. Cells, gels and mechanics Gerald H. Pollack; 8. Polymer-based models of cytoskeletal networks F. C. MacKintosh; 9. Cell dynamics and the actin cytoskeleton James L. McGrath and C. Forbes Dewey, Jr; 10. Active cellular motion: continuum theories and models Marc Herant and Micah Dembo; 11. Summary Mohammad R. K. Mofrad and Roger Kamm.