The Rowat Lab studies cells and tissues as materials.

OUR RESEARCH

We seek to translate our discoveries to applications from human health to the foods that we eat.

Biology is commonly described in terms of specific genes and chemical reactions – transcription, translation – and cells as sacs filled with DNA.

But cells are materials and the physical properties of cells are critical for many physiological functions: how cells deform to circulate through the body; how cells resist mechanical stresses – like stretching or squeezing – is important for homeostasis, and also critical in many diseases where cells have altered physical properties.

At our lab, we think about how tissues and cells sense and respond to external cues in terms of cells as materials.

How do cells maintain their physical properties and regulate them in response to external cues?

To address this question we have three main research goals:

Measure

We are developing new mechanotyping technologies, such as self-assembling scaffolds that have tunable mechanics and topology as well as a deformability screening platform – we recently tested thousands of small molecules and found compounds that make cancer cells stiffer and less invasive; this also enables us to develop systems-level knowledge of the ‘mechanome’.

Understand

We are defining the molecules and pathways that regulate cellular mechanotype. For example, we discovered that soluble stress hormones activate a pathway that causes cancer cells to increases the forces they use to pull on their surrounding matrix, which makes them invade more quickly. Knowing the molecules that are involved is an important first step towards intervening to stop cancer cells from spreading.

Translate

We are harnessing mechanobiology for translation to applications from cancer to cellular agriculture. In addition to molecules we have identified to stop cancer cell invasion, we are also applying our knowledge to tumors as 3D materials. For example, modulating cellular force generation can change tumor porosity, and ultimately increase the accessibility to chemotherapy drugs. While cancer is a main focus of our work, our approaches can be broadly applied across cell types, and we have also investigated cell physical properties in the context of immune cells to cardiac regeneration to neurological movement disorders such as dystonia to cultured meat.

To achieve these research goals, our multidisciplinary team consists of researchers with backgrounds in cell biology, physics, engineering, cancer biology, systems biology, and chemistry. The physical properties of cells and nuclei are also important in the context of food and cooking. For example, why do some cells have a stiffness similar to Jell-o, while others are more like cream cheese? How can we engineer cultured meat that has delicious texture? Food is rich with examples of scientific concepts, and is also an excellent way to engage students and a general audience in the excitement of scientific inquiry, the origins of what we eat, and the beauty of science in everyday life. Learn more on our Science & Food blog hosted by Discover Magazine. For more information about next year’s Science & Food course and associated outreach and public events, stay tuned here.

Our work is currently supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH-NIGMS R35 GM 161448; NIH-NCI R21 CA 289090; F31 CA 288105 to Angelina Flores); the National Science Foundation (BRITE Fellow Award CMMI-2135747 to ACR; Graduate Research Fellowship to Corinne Smith); The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation (Allen Distinguished Investigator Award to ACR); the Marcie H. Rothman Presidential Chair (to ACR); and the Farber Family Foundation. We are also grateful for previous awards from the Department of Defense (Ovarian Cancer Research Fund TEAL Expansion Award) and the United States Department of Agriculture/ National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, Novel Foods and Innovative Manufacturing Technologies Program (2022-67017-36485) that have supported ongoing projects.