Inferring monolayer biomechanics from isolated-cell properties

Develop a method to infer the biomechanical properties of cells in confluent monolayers from measurements of the biomechanical properties of isolated cells, enabling predictive links between single-cell mechanics and collective tissue behavior.

Background

The paper demonstrates that Src activation alters both single-cell behavior (increased diffusion) and collective monolayer rotation, but it highlights the lack of a principled way to connect single-cell biomechanical measurements to those of confluent monolayers.

This explicit knowledge gap limits the ability to predict collective mechanics from single-cell assays, motivating a formal framework to bridge the scales.

References

Even though we do not know how to infer the biomechanical properties of cells in confluent monolayers from those of isolated cells, it is interesting to note that Src activation also influences the single cell motion.

— Src Kinase Slows Collective Rotation of Confined Epithelial Cell Monolayers (2407.06920 - Pricoupenko et al., 9 Jul 2024) in Perspectives