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W. G. Pritchard Lab Seminar: 3:30-4:30 PM, 104 McAllister Building

	             **Monday January 19, 2004**
	
Mechanotransduction in endothelial cells:
	at the interface of engineering and biology   

Peter J. Butler

Department of Bioengineering
Penn State University

Abstract:
 
Endothelial cells (ECs) line blood vessels and are responsible for 
control of blood vessel diameter, permeability to water and nutrients, 
and adhesiveness to immune cells.  ECs are exposed to mechanical forces 
due to blood flow and convert these mechanical signals to biochemical 
reactions leading to both physiological and pathophysiological changes 
in the cell.  Our main hypothesis is that changes in molecular dynamics 
in cells will reveal the spatiotemporal aspects mechanically-activated 
cell signaling.  We have integrated engineering analysis, pulsed-laser 
spectroscopy, confocal microscopy and classical approaches to studying 
cells under flow to gain insight into the spatiotemporal aspects of 
mechanotransduction.  This seminar will outline the main issues in 
mechanotransduction and highlight our data from fluorescence-based 
molecular dynamics experiments which provide direct measurements of 
mechano-chemical signaling in cells with high spatial (nanometer) and 
temporal (nanosecond) resolution.   

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