Ning Wang

Research Overview

Cellular and molecular mechanobiology, mechanomedicine, and mechanohealth; cancer cell biology and mechanics; stem cell biology and mechanics; mechanomemory and mechanoresilience, mechanobiotechnologies and their applications to cells, tissues, and organisms

Professor Wang uses advanced research techniques to gain a fundamental understanding of cell mechanics, including cytoskeletal biomechanics and control of cell form and function; bio-imaging of cytoskeletal structures and stress distribution in living cells; mechanotransduction, nuclear deformation and gene expression; and mechanical biotechnologies and their applications to cells, tissues, and organisms.

He has developed a technology called intracellular stress tomography, which he uses to address fundamental questions about stress propogation and distribution in living cells. He has also developed three-dimensional magnetic twisting cytometry technology and used it to quantify mechanical anisotropy in living cells.

Professor Wang was the first researcher to provide direct evidence that transmembrane adhesion molecule integrins mediate the transmission of force across the cell surface to the cytoskeleton. This fundamental finding opened the field of cell mechanics to the study of combinating biochemistry and biomechanics at cellular and subcellular levels. Using a technique called magnetic twisting cytometry to deliver small forces to specific sites on the cell membrane, he also demonstrated that cytoskeleton tension plays a dominant role in dictating cell shear stiffness and thus cell shape stability. He also showed that these localized forces cause cytoplasmic and nuclear deformation in remote parts of the cell. Recent collaborative work with colleagues at Harvard and Boston universities resulted in a fundamental finding that cells can adjust their internal response to external forces depending on how fast or slow these forces are applied.