Cells have the ability to respond to various types of environmental cues, and in many cases these cues induce directed cell migration towards or away from these signals. How cells sense these cues and how they transmit that information to the cytoskeletal machinery governing cell translocation is one of the oldest and most challenging problems in biology. Chemotaxis, or migration towards diffusible chemical cues, has been studied for more than a century, but information is just now beginning to emerge about how cells respond to other cues, such as substrate-associated cues during haptotaxis (chemical cues on the surface), durotaxis (mechanical substrate compliance) and topotaxis (geometric features of substrate). Here we propose four common principles, or pillars, that underlie all forms of directed migration. First, a signal must be generated, a process that in physiological environments is much more nuanced than early studies suggested. Second, the signal must be sensed, sometimes by cell surface receptors, but also in ways that are not entirely clear, such as in the case of mechanical cues. Third, the signal has to be transmitted from the sensing modules to the machinery that executes the actual movement, a step that often requires amplification. Fourth, the signal has to be converted into the application of asymmetric force relative to the substrate, which involves mostly the cytoskeleton, but perhaps other players as well. Use of these four pillars has allowed us to compare some of the similarities between different types of directed migration, but also to highlight the remarkable diversity in the mechanisms that cells use to respond to different cues provided by their environment.

The principles of directed cell migration.

Unraveling the mechanistic effects of electric field stimulation towards directing stem cell fate and function: A tissue engineering perspective

Electrical stimulation (EStim) has been shown to promote bone healing and regeneration both in animal experiments and clinical treatments. Therefore, incorporating EStim into promising new bone tissue engineering (BTE) therapies is a logical next step. The goal of current BTE research is to develop combinations of cells, scaffolds, and chemical and physical stimuli that optimize treatment outcomes. Recent studies demonstrating EStim's positive osteogenic effects at the cellular and molecular level provide intriguing clues to the underlying mechanisms by which it promotes bone healing. In this review, we discuss results of recent in vitro and in vivo research focused on using EStim to promote bone healing and regeneration and consider possible strategies for its application to improve outcomes in BTE treatments. Technical aspects of exposing cells and tissues to EStim in in vitro and in vivo model systems are also discussed.

/pdf/electrical-stimulation-in-bone-tissue-engineering-treatments-3yske1iues.pdf

Electrical stimulation in bone tissue engineering treatments

Nanoparticle size plays a central role in determining material properties and performance in biomedical applications. A wide variety of functional nanomaterials and nano-bioconjugates have been developed for monitoring biochemical activity, controlling biological functions, and therapeutic applications. This review focuses on the role of nanoparticle size (typically in the range of 1–100 nm) in various biomedical applications, the origin of such a size effect, and the optimum size requirement for the best performance in different biomedical applications. First, we discuss various nanoscale units present in life processes along with their size and functional role. Next, we discuss the size-dependent properties of some well-known nanoparticles and how those properties are exploited in different biomedical applications. Next, we discuss the size-dependent performance of functional nanomaterials and nano-bioconjugates that are used in various biomedical applications. Then, we highlight some of the best designed nanoparticles of optimum size for specific biomedical applications. Finally, we attempt to correlate the origin of the evolutionary selection of various nanoscale units in life processes toward specific biological functions.

Nanoparticle Size Effects in Biomedical Applications

Naturally occurring electric fields are known to be morphogenetic cues and associated with growth and healing throughout mammalian and amphibian animals and the plant kingdom. Electricity in animals was discovered in the eighteenth century. Electric fields activate multiple cellular signaling pathways such as PI3K/PTEN, the membrane channel of KCNJ15/Kir4.2 and intracellular polyamines. These pathways are involved in the sensing of physiological electric fields, directional cell migration (galvanotaxis, also known as electrotaxis), and possibly other cellular responses. Importantly, electric fields provide a dominant and over-riding signal that directs cell migration. Electrical stimulation could be a promising therapeutic method in promoting wound healing and activating regeneration of chronic and non-healing wounds. This review provides an update of the physiological role of electric fields, its cellular and molecular mechanisms, its potential therapeutic value, and questions that still await answers.

/pdf/electrically-stimulated-cell-migration-and-its-contribution-1xcjfadrtl.pdf

Electrically stimulated cell migration and its contribution to wound healing

Methodology that improves water utilization and hydropower generation without increasing flood risk in mega cascade reservoirs

Case for a portable storage medium

Incorporating Potential Climate Change Impacts in Bridge and Culvert Design

The Untapped Potential of Crowdsourced Data for Supporting Flood Resilience: Growing Engagement Faces Non-Uniform Spatial Adoption

Decision making in utilities, municipal, and energy companies depends on accurate and trustworthy weather information and predictions. Recently, crowdsourced personal weather stations (PWS) are being widely used to provide a higher spatial and temporal resolution of weather measurements. For instance, increasing attention is being paid to the potential of PWS data to improve flash-flood assessment and prediction. However, tools and methods to ensure the trustworthiness of the crowd-sourced data in real-time are largely missing. In this paper, we present a Reputation System for Crowdsourced Rainfall Networks (RSCRN) to assign trust scores to personal weather stations in a region. Using real PWS data from the Weather Underground service in the high flood risk region of Norfolk, Virginia, we validate the performance and robustness of the proposed RSCRN. The proposed method is able to converge to a confident trust score for a PWS within 10-20 observations of installation and can robustly respond to any discrepancies in the data due to failure or malicious intent. We benchmark the performance of the proposed method with high-fidelity and trusted hydrological sensor data, which are usually expensive to install. Collectively, the results indicate that the trust score derived from the RSCRN can reflect the collective measure of trustworthiness to the PWS, ensuring both useful and trustworthy data for modeling and decision-making in the future.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3276774.3281020

Reputation system for ensuring data trustworthiness of crowdsourced weather stations: poster abstract

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Alexander B. Chen

Author Tools

Chat about Author