# Integration of elasticity, viscosity, and plasticity in cellular mechanosensing

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2021 · $325,424

## Abstract

The role of mechanics in determining cell phenotype has been intensely studied since pioneering 
studies showed that cells in culture respond to differences in the elastic modulus of their 
environment. Stiffness sensing has been demonstrated in such varied settings as development, 
cancer, wound healing and fibrosis. How cells sense stiffness remains unclear, partly because of a 
lack of quantitative data that define exactly what cells sense, especially in vivo. In 
particular, the nature of viscoelasticity and non-linear (strain-dependent) elasticity and 
mechanical plasticity in normal and diseased tissues is insufficiently characterized, and the 
contribution of these mechanical parameters to cell stiffness sensing and behavior is not 
understood. This proposal extends studies of elasticity to encompass additional biologically 
relevant parameters, with a focus on the role of dissipative processes, and offers the potential to 
reevaluate current models of mechanobiology and develop new concepts of the role of time dependent 
mechanics in biological contexts.
The proposed work builds on a series of our recent investigations where we have developed 
theoretical models to describe the non-linear and dissipative behavior of fibrous ECMs 
and stochastic models to analyze the dynamics of clutches (i.e., focal adhesions) formed 
between the cell and a substrate. We propose to investigate the impact of ECM viscosity, plasticity 
and non-linear elasticity on cell spreading and focal adhesion growth; specifically, to develop a 
detailed understanding of the relationship between the competition between intrinsic cellular 
timescales and characteristic timescales that determine the dissipative processes in the ECM, based 
on the hypothesis that viscous and plastic dissipation can be as important as the well-studied case 
of elastic moduli in determining cell response. We propose to a) Assess the role of viscous and 
elastic constituents of a matrix on cellular mechanosensing, b) Model and measure the effect 
 of fiber realignment in collagen matrices on mechanosensing, adhesion dynamics, and 
cellular behavior and c) Define the reciprocal relation between viscoplastic remodeling of 
collagen networks and cellular mechanosensing.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10246375
- **Project number:** 5R01EB030876-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Vivek Shenoy
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $325,424
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10246375

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10246375, Integration of elasticity, viscosity, and plasticity in cellular mechanosensing (5R01EB030876-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10246375. Licensed CC0.

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