Richard Dickinson
University of Florida, FL·Biomedical Engineering
Cells must organize themselves into working tissues during development and wound healing. When that organization goes wrong, it can lead to tumors.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Engineering
Biophysics
- Topics
tissue biomechanics
epithelial tissue
acini
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Test whether surface tensions and lumen pressure keep epithelial acini, hollow spheres of cells, balanced at a critical point between stable and unstable states, using a 3D vertex-based model and confocal microscopy.
- Measure how cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion shape surface forces in acini by changing adhesion experimentally and tracking 3D shape changes.
- Test whether the difference between inner (apical) and outer (basal) surface tension drives acinus eversion, using dynamic vertex/finite element simulations.
- Trigger eversion experimentally through actomyosin activation, blocking extracellular matrix adhesion, or laser ablation, and compare the results with model predictions.
More about the research
Biologists also grow small tissue models called organoids for drug testing and regenerative medicine. Shaping organoids reliably requires knowing the physical forces that hold tissues together.
Why it matters
The mechanical rules learned here could help researchers explain how gland structure breaks down in cancer. They could also help engineers control the shape of cultured organoids. Better organoid control would make these tissues more reliable for drug testing, regenerative medicine and disease models.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Claudia Loebel
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Biomedical Engineering
Develop new chemistries to change the physical properties of the nascent extracellular matrix in place, inside engineered hydrogels, to control stem and progenitor cell differentiation in 3D cultures.
Zhongkui Hong
Texas Tech University, TX·Biomedical Engineering
Define how stiffness and composition of the extracellular matrix control adhesion and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells through YAP/TAZ mechanotransduction, using cells from ApoE⁻/⁻ mice.
Nanette M Nascone-Yoder
North Carolina State University, NC·Biology
Identify which left-right asymmetries in the endoderm, mesoderm and extracellular matrix are required for stomach curvature, using tissue- and side-specific gene function tests and mechanical measurements in frog embryos.
The school
University of Florida: 65 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 795 research doctorates a year.
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