Investigating the role of fluctuating events in the cellular environment

Complex diseases are often caused or affected by multifactorial influences including environment, genetics and a probability element. Extracellular matrix (ECM) remodelling is a poorly explored factor despite its established connection to gene expression via mechanotransduction that is linked to disease and drug resistance. ECM remodelling appears to occur randomly in space and time. In a mechanobiology context, biomaterials providing temporal or spatial variations is in its infancy.

This project explores the idea that the degree of randomness of ECM remodelling relates to alterations in biological behaviour, thus contributing to disease development and providing analytic markers and therapeutic targets. In this project, a combined approach of experimental data generation through the development of new biomaterials, paired with computational and mathematical description of the interplay between random stimuli exposure and cell behaviour will provide new insight in the origin, prevention and management of diseases.