The emerging field of mechanobiology requires the coordination of knowledge from biologists, physicists, engineers and chemists. There are substantial barriers for interaction between these fields due to methodological and cultural differences. Thus, there is a critical need for developing collaborations between the fields, without which we will be unable to comprehend the mechanical basis of fundamental biological processes. The broad goal of this workshop is to establish mechanobiology as an interdisciplinary and collaborative field, much as the field of systems biology has been established in recent decades. This workshop, "Mechbio symposium: The Mechanome in Action", will bring together researchers from multiple disciplines in July of 2018 at the University of California, Irvine, to discuss recent advances in research that addresses how mechanical signals are read, generated, and transmitted by living systems.
The workshop will impact the training of future leaders in mechanobiology. The eve of the workshop will feature a graduate student symposium that will be chaired by two graduate student co-organizers under the advisement of the Organizers. This will be an opportunity for a new generation to express their own interests and priorities, delegate responsibilities, and organize a scientific event. It will also serve the larger goal of the workshop by generating interactions between trainees across laboratories. We will offer Mechbio Opportunity Awards for new collaborations that are established during the course of the meeting. This award will be open to attendees and will provide reciprocal travel between the labs of new collaborators. Awardees will be required to present their findings at a future meeting. This type of award has been highly successful at the UC Irvine Center for Complex Biological Systems.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
