Wednesday, July 2, 2025 7/2/2025

Detection of Emergent Mechanical Properties of Biologically Complex Cellular States

Award Number: R01EB024989
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE Of BIOMEDICAL IMAGING & BIOENGINEERING
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 08/01/2017
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2027

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Detection of Emergent Mechanical Properties of Biologically Complex Cellular States - Project Summary Although aging, germline mutations, and family history of cancer are significant risks for breast cancer, it is still unclear why one person’s breast cells are more susceptible to this disease than another person’s. Aging changes cells and tissues such that they become more susceptible to cancer initiation. Our published data show that breast epithelial cells from young women who have high-risk germline mutations show accelerated aging with intermediate filament distribution, biological clock acceleration, and stromal immune cell milieu changes comparable to those of women who are 20–40 years older. In our currently funded R01EB024989, we discovered that the mechanical properties of normal breast epithelial cells, as measured by our mechano-Node Pore Sensing (mechano-NPS) platform, differ among younger and older women and that normal epithelial cells from genetically high-risk women who carry germline BRCA1, BRCA2, or PALB2 variants are mechanically “older” than their chronological age. We hypothesized that mechano-NPS can detect disease states based on the emergent mechanical properties that arise from the underlying molecular networks that define lineage and disease states. In this competitive renewal application, we extend this hypothesis to include detection of cancer susceptibility or risk, which is so far not detectable with genetic screening. We will innovate mechano-NPS and advance an in silico model of our device to increase the number of physical parameters it can measure, thereby providing a more complete portrait of single human mammary epithelial cells (HMECS) (Aim 1). We will build a machine learning cancer susceptibility detection system based on measuring mechanical properties of different primary HMEC (young, old, high-risk, family history of breast cancer, etc.) (Aim 2). Finally, we will dissect the molecular mechanisms of mechanical states measured by our advanced mechano-NPS platform (Aim 3). In the last funding period, we successfully designed, built, and validated the first-generation mechano-NPS platform at UC Berkeley and showed it to be portable and robust by building a second platform at City of Hope. The impact of our competitive renewal application will be far more reaching. Clinically useful genetic testing relies on a handful of known monogenic risk traits, but we hypothesize that emergent mechanical properties, measured from just a few hundred cells, are a characteristic of the biology that underlies cancer susceptible states, even those that are polygenic or epigenetic in nature and are passed within a family but that so far have defied definition.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $590,240 )
2025	2025	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	002	7	6/25/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$27,580
2025	2025	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	7	3/21/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$562,660
2025	2024	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	001	6	4/16/2025	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
														Subtotal = $590,240

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $680,237 )
2024	2024	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	004	6	4/29/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$48,707
2024	2024	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	003	6	3/29/2024	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$83,565
2024	2024	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	002	6	3/1/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$547,965
2024	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	5	12/6/2023	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2024	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	001	5	12/6/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
														Subtotal = $680,237

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $839,013 )
2023	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	001	5	2/23/2023	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$653,700
2023	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	004	5	9/1/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$48,083
2023	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	002	5	7/14/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$137,312
2023	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	003	5	7/17/2023	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2023	2020	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 201	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	4	10/27/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$82
														Subtotal = $839,013

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $529,539 )
2020	2020	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 220	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	4	4/17/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$529,539
														Subtotal = $529,539

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $529,539 )
2019	2019	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	1608 4TH ST STE 220	BERKELEY	CA	94710	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	3	5/1/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$529,539
														Subtotal = $529,539

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $513,398 )
2018	2018	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	2150 SHATTUCK AVE RM 313	BERKELEY	CA	94704	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	2	4/13/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$513,398
														Subtotal = $513,398

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $527,648 )
2017	2017	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	2150 SHATTUCK AVE RM 313	BERKELEY	CA	94704	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	1	7/31/2017	NEW	$527,648
														Subtotal = $527,648

Grand Total All Awards = $4,209,614

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Detection of Emergent Mechanical Properties of Biologically Complex Cellular States

Award Number: R01EB024989

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE Of BIOMEDICAL IMAGING & BIOENGINEERING

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 08/01/2017

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2027

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer