2015 CAP Congress / Congrès de l'ACP 2015

Cell Stiffness and Cell Volume

19 Jun 2015, 12:45

45m

CCIS L2-190 (University of Alberta)

Plenary Speaker / Conférencier plénier F-PLEN2 Plenary Session - David A. Weitz, SEAS Harvard / Session plénière - David A. Weitz, SEAS Harvard

Speaker

Prof. David A. Weitz (SEAS Harvard)

Description

The stiffness of cells is commonly assumed to depend on the stiffness of their surrounding: bone cells are much stiffer than neurons, and each exists in surrounding tissue that matches the cell stiffness. In this talk, I will discuss new measurements of cell stiffness, and show that cell stiffness is strongly correlated to cell volume. This affects both the mechanics and the gene expression in the cell, and even impacts on the differentiation of stem cells.