Multiscale Mechanics of Cells and Biological Tissues

Prof Xi-Qiao Feng

Institute of Biomechanics and Medical Engineering, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University

Abstract: Some experimental and theoretical researches conducted by the speaker’s group on the multiscale biomechanics of biological tissues and cells at multiple length scales will be introduced. Particular attention is given to the biomechanical mechanisms underlying the morphogenesis of developing embryos and tumors. First, a multiscale chemomechanical model and the corresponding computational method are presented for studying the dynamic behaviors of a single cells and interconnecting collective cells. Second, we investigate the dynamic instability that occur in biological systems at different tempospatial scales and involve mechanical, biological and chemical coupling mechanisms. Third, we address, both experimentally and theoretically, the migration of collective cells. On the basis of experimental measurements and theoretical analysis, time-independent statistical laws are derived.

Keywords: Cell, biological tissue, Mechnobiology, Multiscale modeling

Bio: Dr. Xi-Qiao Feng is a Chang Jiang Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Engineering Mechanics at Tsinghua University. 

He earned his B.Sc. (1990), M.Sc. (1991) and Ph.D. (1995) degrees in Solids Mechanics from Tsinghua University at Beijing.  From September 1997 to May 1999, he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt of Germany and worked at the Technical University of Darmstadt and Delft University of Technology. He rejoined Tsinghua University as an associate Professor in 1999 and was promoted to a full professor in 2001.

Selected Feng’s honors include: Award of Science and Technology for Young Scientists of China (2007), Distinguished Young Scholars Award of NSFC (2005), Young Scientist Award of Fok Ying Tong Education Foundation (2004), Award for Best Doctoral Theses of China (1999).

Currently, he is the Secretary-General of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (CSTAM) and Director of the Institute of Biomechanics and Medical Engineering (IBME). He also serves as a member of the editorial board of more than 10 international journals, such as Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics, Engineering Fracture Mechanics, and Archive of Applied Mechanics.

Professor Feng’s current interests include: molecular and cellular biomechanics, mechanics of biomaterials, damage and fracture mechanics.

He has authored and co-authored two books and more than 200 journal papers. See the section entitled “Selected Publications” assoicated with the link, “Prof. Yanping Cao” for some of his published citations