“Mechano-Metabolic Control of Cell Behavior”
Cynthia A. Reinhart-King, PhD.
Rice University
Bioengineering
Abstract: Cellular metabolism describes a family of reactions that create the energy and biosynthetic precursors and products that are the building blocks of the cell. It is fundamental to cell function, including cell migration. To move, cells must utilize ATP to fuel the cellular contractility and forces that sustain migration, however very little is known about how the metabolic state of a cell affects its ability to migrate and vice versa. In this talk, I will describe my lab’s efforts to understand the forces driving cell movements in the tumor microenvironment and the energy required for movement. Combining tissue engineering approaches, mouse models, and patient samples, we create and validate in vitro systems to understand how cells navigate the tumor stroma environment to identify novel targets of cancer metastasis. Microfabrication and native biomaterials are used to build mimics of the paths created and taken by cells during metastasis. Using these platforms, we have described a role for a balance between cellular energetics, cell and matrix stiffness, and confinement in determining migration behavior. Moreover, we have extended this work into investigating the intersection of diabetes and the diabetic tissue microenvironment with tumor progression, showing that mechanical changes in the tissue due to diabetes can promote cancer.Overall, our work has demonstrated key mechanometabolic drivers of metastasis within the tissue microenvironment.
Bio: Cynthia Reinhart-King is the John W. Cox Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University. Before joining Rice, she was a University Distinguished Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University, where she also served as Senior Associate Dean for Research in the School of Engineering. She obtained undergraduate degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biology at MIT and her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Bioengineering. Her lab’s research interests are cell and tissue mechanobiology in cancer and atherosclerosis. She was awarded the Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award, the inaugural Mid-Career Award, and the Herb Voigt Service Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society, an NSF CAREER Award, the Sonny Yau ‘72 Excellence in Teaching Award, the Cornell University Cook Award and the Zellman Warhaft Award from the Cornell College of Engineering, the Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Award for Research and the Edward J. White Service Award from the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering. She is a fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, and she was an inaugural New Voices Fellow of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. She served as a standing member of the NIH CMT study section panel, an elected Board Member of AIMBE, Secretary and Elected Board member of BMES, and Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of AIMBE. She is the Past-President of the Biomedical Engineering Society.
Christopher Sotak Biomedical Engineering Lecture Series
Christopher H. Sotak was a beloved friend and colleague, who selflessly shared his positive spirit with faculty and students alike, spending countless hours offering his always thoughtful mentorship, guidance and support. During his more than 22 years at WPI, he greatly enjoyed working with students, and took great joy in involving undergraduate and graduate students in research. Chris also served as the head of Biomedical Engineering Department from 1999 to 2006. His legacy includes leading the growth and development of the department to its current prominence by recruiting and mentoring faculty as well as developing curricular and programmatic initiatives at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. His contributions to the WPI community will live on in the hearts and minds of the many people whose lives he touched.
Sotak was a pioneer in the medical use of MRI, beginning his groundbreaking research even before the first human scanners were developed in the early 1980s. After completing his BA, MA and PhD degrees in chemistry, Chris worked at GE for several years before joining the faculty of WPI. During his career at WPI, Chris earned significant recognition for his research, including the Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association and WPI's Board of Trustees' Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Scholarship as well as Fellow distinctions from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Furthermore, he was an active participant in scientific conferences around the world.
In memory of his contributions to WPI, the BME Department, along with several generous donors, endowed the Christopher Sotak Biomedical Engineering Lecture Series. The goal of this endowed Chris Sotak scholarship is for the BME Department to perpetuate Chris’s passionate commitment to supporting student training and promoting innovative scholarship/research efforts in the field of biomedical engineering. Each year, we invite a distinguished scientist or engineer to speak on a high impact topic in the field of biomedical engineering.