BIRS Workshop — Mechanics of Cells and Polymer Networks: Bridging Theory, Simulation and Experiment

The interface between biology and quantitative disciplines including physics, mathematics and engineering is rapidly expanding. This is the result of many factors, but is largely driven by higher resolution spatial and temporal data from cutting edge imaging techniques, and increasing success in applying physical modeling techniques to biological problems. Mechanobiology is an especially rapidly developing field at the quantitative biology interface. This field describes how force is generated in biological systems, how force impacts chemistry, and how force generation is controlled by intracellular signaling pathways. Numerous feedforward and feedback interactions connect forces in cells to the dynamics of proteins and gene expression, resulting in highly nonlinear systems with complex and often non-intuitive behaviours.