Negative Curvature and Control of Excitable Biological Media
M. Hörning and E. Entechva
Bottom-Up Self-Organization in Supramolecular Soft Matter, Principles and Prototypical Examples of Recent Advances, Springer Series in Materials Science, 217, Pages: 305, 2015 (book chapter) - doi : 10.1007/978-3-319-19410-3

Brief Summary: ''... Active and passive control of excitability in cardiac tissue are exemplarily reviewed by using rigidity controllable gels and tissue boundary shaping polymers. It is illustrated how the knowledge of tissue boundaries can be utilized to control excitation patterns, with relevance to the treatment of cardiac diseases. Further, new ways for active control of excitation patterns by light (optogenetics) and the influence of the substrate rigidity on the tissue morphology and signaling dynamics during development of cardiac tissue is discussed. ...''

Live cell tracking of symmetry break in actin cytoskeleton triggered by abrupt changes in micromechanical environments
S. Inoue§, V. Frank§, M. Hörning§, S. Kaufmann, H. Y. Yoshikawa, J. P. Madsen, A. L. Lewis, S. P. Armes and M. Tanaka*
Biomaterials Science, 3, 12, 1539-1544, 2015
 - doi : 10.1039/c5bm00205b

Brief Summary: ''... The morphological dynamics of myoblast (C2C12) cells in response to an abrupt change in the substrate elasticity was monitored by live cell imaging. The remodeling of actin cytoskeletons could be monitored by means of transient transfection with LifeAct-GFP and the dynamic changes in the orientational order of actin filaments were quantified. The critical role that acto-myosin complexes play in the morphological transition was verified by the treatment of cells with myosin II inhibitor (blebbistatin) and the fluorescence localization of focal adhesion contacts. ...''