Ultrasonic traction force microrheology – ULTRACT

Cellular systems generate and sense large mechanical forces that play a central role during tissue and organ formation in the embryo. However, little is known about how these forces shape embryonic organs, mainly because of a lack of adapted tools to measure cellular forces locally within developing three-dimensional (3D) tissues in vivo. It is the goal of the ULTRACT project to explore the suitability of acoustically generated forces to actively probe the local rheology of soft and biological matter. We will exploit the recent development of acoustical tweezers combined with potent microscopic force transducers to interrogate simple, yet useful, model systems in mechanobiology. The long-term perspective of assessing mechanical properties using solely ultrasound opens important perspectives for investigations that involve large, thick and optically opaque developing organisms for which live optical imaging and mechanical evaluation have remained impossible. We therefore expect ultrasonic traction force microrheology to emerge as a central tool to unravel a wide variety of mechanism involved in the bourgeoning field of mechanobiology.