Speaker
Description
Substrate geometry affects collective cell migration. Recently, curvotaxis is identified where cells exhibit different preference toward curvature. To further explore the curvotaxis, we fabricated pneumatic-driven microdomes to create the substrate curvature from flat to positively curved surface and observed a novel migratory behavior: epithelial (MDCK) cells exhibit a strong, centripetal migration towards the dome center upon inflation and oscillate. We developed a quantitative analysis pipeline to correct for curvature effect on area analysis. However, the interpretation of the result is confounded, as the deformation simultaneously induces both substrate curvature and radial strain. It is therefore unclear which physical cue dominates this response. We will extend our studies to the purely stretching substrate and deformable microridge substrate to distinguish the effect.
