The ultimate goals of this research award are to enhance the mechanistic understanding, establish theoretical foundations or meaningful measurements, and provide a rational basis for selectively modulating cell motility for optimizing celfunction. Directed cell movements in response to chemical and physical cues are crucial to many problems in biomedicine and biotechnology as are the deformation and restructuring of the surrounding fibrous matrix due to underlying cell tractional forces. Characterization of these properties in vitro and understanding their consequences in vivo are unifying themes approached using cell behavior assays in conjunction with mathematical models at both the single cell and cell population/continuum levels.
