About the Future Leaders in Mechanobiology Seminar Series
Launched in May 2021, the Future Leaders in Mechanobiology is a monthly seminar series featuring up-and-coming leaders in mechanobiology–PhD students and postdocs from a wide range of fields, backgrounds, and institutions. By providing an international stage to share one’s work and opportunities to interact with researchers at all career stages, we aim to create an inclusive and valuable series for early-stage researchers and the mechanobiology community as a whole.
Future Leaders in Mechanobiology will meet via Zoom on the third Wednesday of the month, at 11am ET (8am PT, 10am CT), and all are welcome to attend. Recordings of past talks and the future schedule can be found below.
We are accepting (self)-nominations for speakers HERE!
2024-2025 Seminar Schedule
Want to present? Nominate speakers here.
Upcoming Seminars
April 16, 2025: Meghan Kupratis, PhD
Mauck Lab, University of Pennsylvania
Title: “Emergent cell subpopulations and time-evolving biophysical cues in the developing porcine meniscus”
Past Seminars
March 19, 2025: Leila Jaafar, PhD Candidate, The Pennsylvania State University
Title: “Investigating the Biomechanics of Stomatal Maturation and Dynamics in Eudicots and Grasses”
February 19, 2025: Avery Rui Sun, PhD Candiate, National University of Singapore
Title: “Deciphering the distinct roles of extracellular matrix ligands and mechanics in cardiac aging”
January 15, 2025: Yamini Ravichandran, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Geneva
Title: “Mechanical induction of animal morphogenesis”
December 18, 2024: Jason Chang Marvin, Ph.D., HMS Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital, Center for Regenerative Medicine
Title: “Innate Immune Regulation of Enthesis Regeneration in Adult Zebrafish: Defining the Crosstalk Between Prostaglandin E2 Signaling and Mechanical Loading”
November 20, 2024: Alişya Anlaş, Ph.D., AAAS Science and Technology Fellow
Title: “Tissue mechanics regulates genomic instability in cancer”
October 16, 2024: Shailaja Seetharaman, Ph.D., Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
Title: “Endothelial Dysfunction in Atherosclerosis: Mechanisms Linking Flow-Sensitive Gene Regulation and Cytoskeletal Crosstalk”
May 15, 2024: Sana Nasim, Postdoctoral Researcher, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard University
Title: Mind the barrier: Macrophages and endothelial barrier function in mutant GNAQ driven Capillary Malformation
April 17, 2024: Gabrielle Grifno, PhD Candidate, Boston University
Title: Probing transport and deposition of single aerosols in real-time in functional mouse lungs
March 20, 2024: Abbie Clevenger, PhD Candidate, Texas A & M University
Title: Mechanics and Cancer: Understanding how peristalsis drives a malignant mechanotransduction response in KRAS mutant colorectal cancer cells
February 28, 2024: Stephanie Ellyse Schneider, Research Associate, University of Colorado Boulder
Title: Mechanosensing in the Heart: Understanding how cell mechanics influences cell fate and drives epigenetic architecture (Abstract)
December 13, 2023: Katie Young, Postdoctoral Scholar, Vanderbilt University
Title: Expanding the Genomechanics Toolbox: New Techniques to Investigate Metastasis by Linking Mechanical and Genetic Data at Single Cell Level across the Genome
November 15, 2023: Jingyi Yu, PhD Candidate, Pennsylvania State University
Title: Combining strength and extensibility: unraveling the mechanical and structural dynamics of plant epidermal cell walls
October 18, 2023: Loic Fort, Postdoctoral Researcher, Vanderbilt University
Title: Apoptosis, Nucleotides and Cell Tension: Investigating mechanisms regulating stem cell conversion to the cardiac lineage
September 20, 2023: Emily Pujadas, PhD Candidate, Northwestern University
Title: Nanoimaging & Targeted Protein Degradation Techniques to Assess Chromatin Conformation, Connectivity, and Gene Expression
June 21, 2023: Qing Tang, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
Title: Insight into cytoskeleton sorting from microtubule detyrosination
April 19, 2023: Piere Rodriguez Aliaga, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
Title: Harnessing the force (spectroscopy) to unveil the dark side of the Huntingtin protein conformational landscape
Recording embargoed until later date.
March 22, 2023: Avilash Singh Yadav, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University
Title: Stay FLAT or BUCKLE? The causes and consequences of mechanical buckling in Arabidopsis sepals
February 22, 2023: Windie Hoefs, PhD Student, The Francis Crick Insitute, University College London
Title: YAP nuclear translocation in epithelia is regulated by focal adhesions
January 18, 2023: Nadia Ayad, PhD Student, University of California, San Francisco
Title: Mechanosignaling initiates Wnt/beta-catenin signaling and establishes the mesoderm boundary through programmed cell death in an in vitro gastrulation model
November 16, 2022: Liana Boraas, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University
Title: Untranslated mRNA sequences regulate cell movement via a non-coding function
October 19, 2022: Michael Friedman, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University
“Genetic Variability Influences the Musculoskeletal Response to Disuse”
September 21, 2022: Ryan Daniels, PhD Candidate, HHMI Gilliam Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
“Mechanoactive Rho signaling through YAP/TAZ suppresses chondrogenic gene expression”
June 15, 2022: Valeria Venturini, PhD Candidate, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
“Sensing the force from within: the nucleus as regulator of migration plasticity”
April 20, 2022: Ivan Radin, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Washington University in St. Louis
“Vacuoles, changing shape under pressure”
March 16, 2022: Linda Irons, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Yale University
“Multiscale computational modeling of vascular adaptation and homeostasis”
February 16, 2022: Richard Vincent, PhD, New Jersey Institute of Technology
“Glycosaminoglycan mimetic structural variation impacts stem cell chondrogenesis”
January 19, 2022: Kateryna Fal, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Université de Lyon
“Plant chromatin ‘senses’ mechanical stress”
December 15, 2021: Daniel Abebayehu, PhD, NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Virginia
“Immuno-stromal axes in pulmonary and biomaterial-mediated fibrosis”
November 17, 2021: Lucile Michels, PhD Candidate, Wageningen University
“A microviscosimetry toolbox for plant cells and tissues based on molecular rotors”
October 13, 2021: Kolade Adebowale, PhD, Harvard + Wyss
“Enhanced matrix stress relaxation promotes cell migration”
September 15, 2021: Lisa Van den Broeck, PhD, North Carolina State University
“Exchange of molecular and cellular information: A hybrid model connecting regulatory interactions with stem cell divisions in the root”
June 16, 2021: Seyed Ali Reza Mousavi, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Scripps/HHMI.
“Plant mechanotransduction: The role of PIEZO ion channel in sensing external forces in plants”
May 12, 2021: Melina Gyparaki, PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania
“Super resolution microscopy of tau aggregation in pathology”
