A trial of strength between cells: New Heisenberg Professorship for Mechanics of Active Biomaterials at TU Dresden

Cells are the smallest living units in our body. Every minute, body cells deform in order to fulfil their natural function. For example, the white blood cells of the immune system stretch and elongate in order to travel through our body. In order to divide into two daughter cells, each cell in the body takes on a round shape, which then cuts off in the centre. These cellular deformations are a natural process in our body, but if not carried out correctly, they can lead to malfunction or disease. One application of this research is, for example, the diagnosis of some types of cancer.

explains Prof Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich. „As such, cells are an active material with unusual mechanical properties. The physical forces required to deform a solid material are described in a field of physics called continuum mechanics. In order to understand how cells regulate their shape, the descriptions of classical continuum mechanics must be extended to take into account the special properties of the living material of a cell or tissue. With the aim of understanding the mechanics of living matter, the physicists and their international team are developing new quantitative measurement methods for living cells and tissues as well as mathematical modelling.

Prof. Fischer-Friedrich wants to characterise these living materials at molecular, cellular and tissue level. At the molecular level, her team is particularly interested in how the weak molecular bonds of the cytoskeleton react to mechanical stress and how this influences the molecular architecture of the material. They also want to investigate how the mechanics and force generation of the actin cytoskeleton change when cells undergo disease-related changes. In a further sub-project, Prof Fischer-Friedrich, in collaboration with colleagues from the Faculty of Biology, is focusing on the mechanical properties of the basement membrane of cover tissues and investigating how this influences the development of organ shape.

Professor Fischer-Friedrich has been pursuing these research questions as a junior research group leader at PoL since 2019. The Heisenberg professorship now gives her the opportunity to establish her research group in Dresden in the long term and to become involved in teaching at TU Dresden, particularly through the new Physics of Life Master's programme. In this way, young scientists also benefit from cutting-edge research in teaching. „We at PoL are delighted that the Heisenberg Programme has recognised the achievements of our colleague. This is great news for Professor Fischer-Friedrich, but also for PoL and TU Dresden," emphasises Prof. Otger Campàs, Spokesperson and Managing Director of the Cluster of Excellence PoL.

Über Prof.in Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich

Prof.in Fischer-Friedrich studied physics in Leipzig and Edinburgh. She was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society for her doctoral thesis at the MPI PKS (Dresden) and the University of Saarland (Saarbrücken) in the field of biological physics. After a postdoc at the Weizmann Institute in Israel and in Dresden, she has been working as a research group leader at the Physics of Life Cluster of Excellence at TU Dresden since 2019. Her research was honoured with the Hertha Sponer Prize of the German Physical Society in 2022. Prof. Fischer-Friedrich was accepted into the Heisenberg Programme by the German Research Foundation and has been a Heisenberg Professor at the Cluster of Excellence PoL and the Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering (CMCB) at Technische Universität Dresden since February 2023.

¨über das Exzellenzcluster Physik des Lebens

Physics of Life (PoL) is one of three Clusters of Excellence at TU Dresden. It focuses on identifying the physical laws underlying the organisation of life in molecules, cells and tissues. In the cluster, scientists from physics, biology and computer science are jointly researching how active matter organises itself into predetermined structures in cells and tissues, thus giving rise to life. Physics, biology and computer science are jointly investigating how active matter organises itself into predetermined structures in cells and tissues and how this gives rise to life. PoL is funded by the DFG as part of the Excellence Strategy and is a collaboration between research groups at TU Dresden and research institutions in the DRESDEN-concept network, such as the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Biology;for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS), the Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research (IPF) and the Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR).

Further information: https://www.physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de

&p>About the DFG Heisenberg Programme

The Heisenberg Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG) serves to promote outstanding young researchers in preparation for a scientific leadership position with the aim of attaining a lifetime professorship. The Heisenberg Professorship provides funding for a temporary professorship (W2 or W3) at a German university and flexible research funding. The Heisenberg Professorship enables researchers to establish themselves as professors at a German university.

Article from "Technische Universität Dresden" from 25 April 2023