Force
Welcome to the Liu lab


Cell mechanics, biophysics. @Wuhan university
武汉大学刘郑课题组

functions
Force


Current research interests
1. Visualizing molecular forces in living cells by a reversible shearing DNA-based tension probe
Cells are highly dynamic in tissues, and their functions are constantly regulated by various forms of mechanical forces generated by the pushing, pulling and squeezing, both by other cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM). The mechanical forces generated by cells in tissues are substantial and can be easily in the range of many nN. Instead, the force per receptor is tiny, with its magnitude distributing from a few pN to tens of pN, but these molecular forces can precisely regulate the signal transduction process in time and space, thereby directly or indirectly controlling a number of biological responses such as cell differentiation, gene expression, and apoptosis. In the last decade, DNA-based tension sensors had made significant contributions to study the importance of mechanical forces in many biological systems. Albeit successful, one shortcoming of these techniques is their inaccessibility to reversibly measure receptor forces in a higher regime (i.e. >20-pN), which limited our understanding of the molecular details of mechano-chemo-transduction in living cells. We are developing a reversible shearing DNA-based tension probe (RSDTP) for probing molecular pN-scale forces between 4-60 pN transmitted by cells. Using these probes, we can easily distinguish the differences of force-bearing integrins without perturbing adhesion biology. We are particularly interested in understanding how cells sense and respond to mechanical forces at the molecular level.
细胞在体内拥挤的环境中不仅通过挤来挤去以获得足够的生存空间,同时,细胞的生命过程也不断的受到挤压、拉伸、弯曲和拉扯细胞外基质(ECM)等过程产生的机械力所调控。尽管细胞上每个受体上传递的机械力小的令人难以置信---分布在几pN到几十pN范围,但是这些机械力信号可以深刻影响着胚胎发育、肿瘤迁移、免疫识别等多种过程。因此,在空间和时间上对细胞机械力进行精准地表征,将可以帮助我们深入认识细胞是如何利用微观力学信号诱导和改变相关的生物化学信号。我们实验室最近开发了一种基于新型DNA探针(Reversible shearing DNA-based tension probe)的细胞力学可视化技术,用实时的探测细胞传递的4-60pN之间的分子pN级力。使用这些探针,我们可以在不扰乱粘附生物学的情况下,很容易地分辨出受力的整合素的差异,并可以研究特定的力学受体的功能。
我们正在利用这种细胞可视化技术探索细胞如何在分子水平上感知和响应机械力。
Reversible shearing DNA-based tension probe and cellular force images

Reference: Li et al, A Reversible shearing DNA probe for visualizing mechanically strong receptors in living cells, Nature Cell Biology, 2021.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-021-00691-0.
Movie 1: Revealing the magnitude and spatial dynamics of integrin forces in living cells with RSDTP.
(Top, 17-pN; middle, 45-pN; bottom, 56-pN).
Movie 2: Imaging of different levels of integrin force in real time with multiplexed RSDTP.