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ME-EM Graduate Seminar Speaker Series

proudly presents

Sangyoon, J. Han, PhD

Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Michigan Technological University

Abstract

In this talk, I will introduce the field of mechanobiology, i.e., how mechanical forces influence cellular behavior. My laboratory is dedicated to understanding the interplay between cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM) in response to various mechanical cues, including bulk stiffness, nanoscale ECM architecture, and fluid shear stress. We employ innovative physical assays and computational techniques to quantify cellular traction forces and leverage imaging data analysis to observe the dynamic cell-ECM adhesion process from inception to disassembly. We have developed and shared a suite of computational tools to advance the field: (1) a traction force microscopy (TFM) software that enhances the precision and interpretation of cellular traction fields, and (2) a focal adhesion analysis package to monitor and categorize the diverse cell-ECM adhesions. Additionally, we integrate time series analysis to correlate adhesion dynamics with traction forces. Using these computational tools and live-cell imaging of key structural and signaling molecules, my lab seeks to identify the fundamental mechanism underlying the transduction process, i.e., from force transmission, structural sensing to signaling, within integrin-based adhesions for sensing the bulk and local ECM stiffness. I will focus on delivering a summary of our recent publication elucidating the myosin-independent stiffness-dependent traction transmission. Our work reveal that cells can generate differential tension in response to substrate stiffness without necessitating myosin contractility. This suggests that such differential tension is not contingent on a signaling response yet can initiate varied signaling pathways for other cellular processes, such as proliferation or survival. I will also briefly introduce a mathematical model that can explain the stiffness-dependent force transmission in myosin independent manner.

Bio

Sangyoon Han received BS and MS degree from Mechanical Engineering at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea in 2002 and 2004. He received his PhD with Dr. Nathan Sniadecki from Mechanical Engineering at University of Washington (UW) in 2012 in the area of cell mechanics. He joined for his postdoctoral training a Lab of Computational Cell Biology led by Dr. Gaudenz Danuser at Harvard Medical School in the department of Cell Biology, then moved to UT Southwestern, Cell Biology in 2014. He started his independent career at Michigan Technological University in 2017 as an Assistant Professor. His research interests center around understanding how mechanics affects cell/molecular biology, referred to as mechanobiology. He develops a minimally-perturbing experimental approach and captures the heterogeneity of dynamic mechanochemical states using live cell microscopy, computer vision, and inverse dynamics to probe feedbacks between cellular structure and mechanical forces. He received two NIH R15 awards, two Wallace Research Foundation Awards as a PI, and a NIH R01 grant as a co-Investigator, and published papers in Nature Methods, Nature Cell Biology, eLife, Communications Materials, and American Journal of Physiology.