About Us
Center for Mechanical Excitability
The Center for Mechanical Excitability (CME) is focused on the understanding of the mechanobiome, where biological forces are sensed, transduced, and exerted as part of a broad range of processes, both physiological and pathophysiological.
While these mechanically-driven phenomena touch almost every fundamental process in biology, their molecular mechanisms are yet to be established, a fact that represents a unique opportunity to the fine the molecular principles of a wide range of phenomena spanning, from the most basic biology to the understanding and treatment of diseases where mechanobiology plays a defining role (i.e., metastatic cancer, hearing loss, cardiovascular disease, somatosensory and musculoskeletal ailments).
Therefore, the CME is to lead the development of this nascent discipline, at the mechanistic and discovery science levels, using an advanced toolkit that includes: biochemistry, biophysics, cell and molecular biology, structural biology and imaging, as well as AI-driven computational modeling and bioinformatics.
Director’s Statement
Living cells are continuously exposed to mechanical forces while at the same time physically influencing and adapting to their surroundings.
Recent progress has led to the realization of an existing and all-encompassing “mechanobiome”, where forces are sensed, transduced, and exerted as part of a broad range of processes, both physiological and pathophysiological. This emerging concept remains, by and large, descriptive and phenomenological.
While these mechanically-driven phenomena touch almost every fundamental process in biology, their molecular mechanisms are yet to be established. This represents a unique greenfield opportunity that spans naturally from the most basic biology to the understanding and treatment of diseases where mechanobiology plays a defining role (i.e., metastatic cancer, hearing loss, cardiovascular disease, somatosensory and musculoskeletal ailments).
Thus, the mission of the Center for Mechanical Excitability (CME) is to lead the development of this nascent discipline, at the mechanistic and discovery science levels.
Areas of Inquiry Heads
Demet Araç
Mechanical Signaling
Margaret Gardel
Motors and Scaffolds
Ruth Anne Eatock
Sensory Mechanotransduction
Yamuna Krishnan
Biophysics and Technology
Marcos Sotomayor
Deputy Director