Yang Kao Wang

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that micropost rigidity impacts cell morphology, focal adhesions, cytoskeletal contractility and stem cell differentiation, and early changes in cytoskeleton contractility predicted later stem cell fate decisions in single cells.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that vimentin serves as a regulator to maintain intracellular mechanical homeostasis by mediating cytoskeleton architecture and the balance of cell force generation in EMT cancer cells.

TL;DR: This protocol describes how to fabricate the silicon micropost array masters and elastomeric substrates, as well as how to perform cell culture experiments and stem cell differentiation assays on these substrates in order to examine the effect of substrate rigidity on stem cell morphology, traction force generation, focal adhesion organization and differentiation.

TL;DR: The direct involvement of cell spreading and RhoA/ROCK-mediated cytoskeletal tension generation in BMP-induced signaling and early stages of in vitro osteogenesis is demonstrated, and the essential interplay between biochemical and mechanical cues in stem cell differentiation is highlighted.

TL;DR: A review of a number of recent studies on how cell adhesion and mechanical cues influence the differentiation of MSCs into specific lineages shows evidence that mechanical signals played important roles in regulating a stem cell fate.