Maryam Riaz

TL;DR: This work constraining endothelial cells on rectangular fibronectin-coated micropatterns and using Structured Illumination Microscopy to observe the interactions between actin stress fibers, nuclear lamina and LINC complexes at a super-resolution scale indicates that nuclear indentations induce the formation of segregated domains of condensed chromatin.

TL;DR: It is shown that the study of nuclear confinement with microsystems has opened up new experimental avenues that already offer promising clues for understanding diseases that are associated with defective nuclear mechanics.

TL;DR: The complementarity of these two polymeric substrates, combined with an efficient microprinting technique, can be further developed in the future as a powerful mechanobiology platform to investigate in vitro the effect of mechanotransduction cues on cellular functions, gene expression, and stem cell differentiation.

TL;DR: This study demonstrates a matrix rigidity-dependent regulation of the directional persistence in motile keratocytes and refines the role of αvβ3 and α5β1 integrins in the molecular clutch model.

TL;DR: A robust method for probing cellular and nuclear deformation during spreading and detachment from micropatterned substrates is established and it is shown that (de-)adhesion kinetics of endothelial cells are modulated by substrate stiffness and rely on the actomyosin network.