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PhD Thesis Defence: Ariadna Marín Llauradó
Thursday, January 27, 2022 @ 11:00 am–2:00 pm
Mechanical stress in curved epithelia of designed size and shape
Ariadna Marín Llauradó, Integrative cell and tissue dynamics group
The function of organs such as lungs, kidneys and mammary glands relies on the three-dimensional geometry of their epithelium. How epithelial geometry emerges from mechanical stresses remains poorly understood. To address this question systematically, here we engineered curved epithelial monolayers of controlled size and shape and mapped their state of stress. We designed pressurized epithelia with spherical, rectangular and ellipsoidal cross-sections. We developed a computational approach to map the stress tensor these epithelia from the measured pressure and geometry, without assumptions of material properties. In epithelia with spherical cross-section spanning more than one order of magnitude in radius, we show that stress increases with areal strain in a size-independent manner. In epithelia with rectangular and ellipsoidal cross-section we found pronounced stress anisotropies consistent with asymmetric distribution tractions measured at the cell-substrate contact line. Cells tended to align with the direction of maximum principal stress, but this alignment was non-universal and increased with monolayer anisotropy. Our study establishes how the size and shape of an epithelium depends on luminal pressure and mechanical stress.
This thesis defence will take place at Auditori Antoni Caparrós, located at the Parc Científic de Barcelona, Tower D with limited capacity, seats will be assigned on a first come first served basis. The defence will start at 11 AM.
