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National Taiwan University  School of Medicine and School of Engineering

Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Cell and Tissue Engineering Laboratory                                      

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Cells are the fundamental units of life.  Their behaviors are controlled by their intrinsic genetic information, as well as their environment.  Cells in their native environment reside in a social context where they interact with other cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM).  The ECM provides a mechanical, biochemical, and topographical environment.  Mechanobiology studies how cells perceive this physical world. How do the cells in your muscle and bone know that you have lifted weights with them and to respond with growth? How come astronauts get osteoporosis when they come back from space? As traditional biology examines the chemical process that take place inside the cells, mechanobiology investigates how the physical signals are turned into chemical responses. To this end, we employ technologies from mechanical, chemical, and material engineering to combine with biology and physiology. The knowledge gained from this interdisciplinary research not only will allow us fundamental understanding of our physiology, but also will help us build better tissues, both natural and artificial.

To understand how cells interact with their surroundings and to better control cell behaviors, we developed the following programs to achieve these goals.  They can be categorized into two areas:

Physical Microenvironment

Cells reside in a great variety of microenvironments, such as the stiff and porous bone and the flexible and organized ligament.  These physical milieus dictate cell behaviors and the field of mechanobiology and mechanotransduction studies how do cells perceive and respond to the physical environment.  One of our goals is to investigate the influence of the physical parameters of the cellular microenvironment on cell behaviors.  Using microfluidic channels, we generate collagen gels with fiber alignment and a variety of thickness/stiffness to delineate the effects of ECM structure and mechanical properties.  We can also control the dimensionality of cells to be on the top of the gel (2D) or embedded within the gel (3D) to understand the role of intracellular organization in cell-material interactions.

Physical Stimulation

In addition to the static material characteristics, cells can experience a number of physical stimulations, such as deformation, fluid shear, and electrical potentials.  Combining tools in mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, and microfabrication, we build bioreactors to apply well-defined physical loadings to cells and tissues to examine their effects.  Furthermore, we study the interactions between the environment and loadings to better understand the underlying mechnosensing mechanisms.  These factors are further used to promote a certain cell behaviors, such as collagen synthesis or cartilage formation, for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Recent Projects