Laboratory of Applied Mechanobiology,

Department of Health Sciences and Technology,

ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

E-mail: viola.vogel@hest.ethz.ch

Cells exploit mechanical forces to sense the physical aspects of their microenvironments.  They pull on the surrounding extracellular matrix and the anchorage of cells to their environment is essential for their survival. Bacteria and cells thereby take advantage of the fact that the stretching of proteins can tune the breakage of bonds and switch the structure-function relationships of biomolecules.  Various examples will be presented illustrating sophisticated nanomechanical concepts how our immune cells exploit mechanical forces to fight bacterial infections and by which cells can feel nanoscale topographical features.  Despite these enormous possibilities that are exploited by Nature to regulate properties and functions of nanosystems by mechanical forces, very few attempts have been made so far to translate some of these concepts into the design of synthetic materials.