Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( 🔒 ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Need Help

Mechanobiological regulations of collective cell movement: insights from in vivo to in vitro

Award Number: R35GM162386
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/18/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 01/31/2031

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Mechanobiological regulations of collective cell movement: insights from in vivo to in vitro - PROJECT SUMMARY Collective cell moment is a complex phenomenon in which cells integrate global and local cues to determine their collective positional changes. This process is fundamental to various tissue morphogenesis during embryonic development, and also plays roles in immune responses and diseases such as cancer. While significant progress has been made in identifying molecular and chemical regulators, the importance of mechanical cues has only been emerging in the last decades, primarily through in vitro and/or in single-cell studies. Our understanding of mechanical regulations in vivo, particularly in collective cell movement, is still limited. This knowledge gap aligns with the challenges in tissue engineering, where synthetic tissues for disease modeling and drug screening struggle to replicate the structural complexity of their native counterparts. As Richard Feynman famously stated, “What I cannot create, I do not understand.” The Weng lab aims to bridge in vivo and in vitro studies by integrating biology and engineering. The overall vision is to decode and harness the fundamental mechanical principles from collective cell behaviors during tissue morphogenesis, and to advance technical innovation in creating functional 3D tissues and organs. Two synergistic strategies will be employed to achieve this goal: (1) Understanding mechanical regulations of collective cell movement in vivo, and (2) engineering synthetic cues to control these regulations and recreate collective cell movement by design in vitro. Research in the Weng lab currently focuses on convergent extension (CE), a conserved collective cell movement critical for the elongation of body axis and multiple tissues during development. Using Xenopus laevis embryos and Xenopus and mammalian cells as the in vivo and in vitro models, complemented by in silico computational models, the lab studies multiscale mechanical regulation of CE. Over the next five years, this research program aims to address two key questions: (1) How do mechano-sensing and -responses between individual cells instruct CE in vivo? (2) Is it possible to engineer mechanical conditions that replicate in vivo environments to leverage cells’ mechano-sensing and -responses, eliciting CE-like collective cell movement in vitro? These studies will advance our understanding of mechanical regulations in CE, and identify key principles that warrant further exploration into other forms of collective cell movement. Additionally, this research will uncover new targets as the Weng lab continues to decode and engineer the mechanical feedback mechanisms regulating collective cell behaviors. In the long term, this program will also contribute to the fundamentals of mechanobiology and tissue engineering, as well as the prevention and treatment of aberrant collective ell movement in congenital diseases and cancer metastasis.


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: 2026 ( Subtotal = $412,124 )
2026	2026	THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY	3400 N CHARLES ST	BALTIMORE	MD	21218	BALTIMORE CITY	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	1	3/19/2026	NEW	$412,124
														Subtotal = $412,124

Grand Total All Awards = $412,124

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Mechanobiological regulations of collective cell movement: insights from in vivo to in vitro

Award Number: R35GM162386

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

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

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/18/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 01/31/2031

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer