Summary

The goal of the project is to provide new tools to investigate the force transmission and mechanotransduction of cell-cell contacts in the context of confluent epithelial monolayers. For collective dynamics to be coordinated across many cells, intercellular stresses might be expected to be cooperative over similar distances. The project is driven by the central hypothesis that cell-cell junctions, in particular adherens junctions and desmosomes transmit forces to neighboring cells and thereby report about the state of adjacent cells. Here, we want to explore how cells respond to local and global chemical and physical stimuli applied to intact cell layers changing the mechanics and dynamics of the cell layer. Concretely, we want to establish a setup that allows to carry out lateral force measurements between two or more adjacent cells by monitoring the deflection of soft pillar-based force sensor. In contrast to micropillars used for traction force microscopy, we envision a substrate displaying micrometer-long posts that exceed the height of a cell allowing us to monitor the lateral movement of cells subjected to chemical and physical stimuli .