Cells exert, sense, and respond to physical forces through an astounding diversity of mechanisms.
Here we review recently developed tools to quantify the forces generated by cells. We …

Cells comprising a tissue migrate as part of a collective. How collective processes are
coordinated over large multi-cellular assemblies has remained unclear, however, because …

Cell migration is fundamental to establishing and maintaining the proper organization of
multicellular organisms. Morphogenesis can be viewed as a consequence, in part, of cell …

Fundamental biological processes including morphogenesis, tissue repair and tumour
metastasis require collective cell motions 1 , 2 , 3 , and to drive these motions cells exert traction …

With every beat of the heart, inflation of the lung or peristalsis of the gut, cell types of diverse
function are subjected to substantial stretch. Stretch is a potent stimulus for growth, …

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) promote tumour invasion and metastasis. We show
that CAFs exert a physical force on cancer cells that enables their collective invasion. Force …

In recent years considerable progress has been made in the development of faithful procedures
for the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). An important step in this …

Cell function depends on tissue rigidity, which cells probe by applying and transmitting forces
to their extracellular matrix, and then transducing them into biochemical signals. Here we …

The processes by which an organism develops its shape and heals wounds involve expansion
of a monolayer sheet of cells. The mechanism underpinning this epithelial expansion …

Collective cell migration is a key driver of embryonic development, wound healing, and
some types of cancer invasion. Here, we provide a physical perspective of the mechanisms …