Recent research has shown that living cells react in a very refined manner to mechanical forces exchanged with their surroundings. This makes it relevant to ask: how do cells react to variations in the microstructural geometry of their environment?

This project shall devise tools to clarify this question through experimental and mathematical modeling. To this end, we will combine and develop approaches from Mechanobiology, Materials Science, Stereology and Stochastic Geometry:

• On the physical side, our tools consist of a class of nanoporous biomaterials with controllable microstructure. We will measure the physiological reaction of cells growing on and in these materials, and calculate forces that cells experience.
• On the mathematical side, we will develop stochastic models for the geometry of these materials, and find statistical descriptions for the structural traits that cells react to.

Our project shall eventually enable insight into the microstructural cues cells react to, and provide guidelines for the fabrication of biomaterials.

Our project is supported by a Villum Synergy grant from the Velux Foundations (Villum Fonden)  2022.