{"675095":{"#nid":"675095","#data":{"type":"event","title":"PhD Defense by Elijah Marquez","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EElijah Marquez\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBioE Ph.D. \u0026nbsp;Defense\u0026nbsp;Presentation\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJune 26, 2024\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E3:30PM\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIBB Suddath Seminar Room 1128\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EZoom link: \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/96421964446\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/96421964446\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThesis Advisor\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAndre\u0301s J. Garci\u0301a, Ph.D., George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute\u0026nbsp;of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThesis Committee Members\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Cheng Zhu, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, \u003Cem\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. John Blazeck, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Wilbur Lam, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, \u003Cem\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Jianping Fu, Department of Mechanical Engineering, \u003Cem\u003EUniversity of Michigan\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMechanotransduction at Focal Adhesions: Interplay among Force, FAK, and YAP:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe body experiences a variety of mechanical cues in day-to-day function: compressive and tensile stresses in bone and cartilage to latent mechanical signals from the extracellular matrix (ECM). Mechanical cues drive processes such as cell migration and proliferation. Cells sense mechanical signals via cell-ECM interactions, which are primarily facilitated through focal adhesions (FAs). FAs have 100s of unique components: a few key proteins are vinculin, talin, and focal adhesion kinase (FAK). While FA turnover has been well recognized, how cells translate mechanical signals at FAs into biochemical changes is less understood. Previous work demonstrated that yes-associated protein (YAP), a transcriptional coactivator, responds to changes in adhesive area and substrate rigidity. Deleting essential FA proteins alters YAP activity, and YAP upregulates FA-related genes. Our objective is to further our understanding of cell adhesion by elucidating how cells utilize focal adhesions to translate mechanical cues into biochemical signals. I hypothesize that FAs utilize interactions between vinculin, talin, and FAK and spatially and temporally coordinate FA turnover rates and forces to induce YAP activity. Therefore, as I alter vinculin-talin-FAK interactions, I expect a reduction in YAP activity. As I spatially direct cells to form more focal adhesions across the cell periphery and major axis, I expect to induce an increase in YAP activity. In this thesis, I demonstrated that reducing micropillar area while keeping array stiffness constant, which increases force map resolution, alters cell behavior by reducing cell contractility and spread area. I evaluated the impact of removing talin-FAK and talin-vinculin interactions on YAP activity. Upon removing vinculin, FAK, or talin; impairing FAK or vinculin\u2019s functionality, or abrogating talin-FAK or talin-vinculin interactions, there was a drop in YAP\u2019s nuclear accumulation and transcriptional activity. Lastly, I developed a platform for spatially and temporally directing FAs to monitor FA distribution, number, and cell generated traction forces. This work advances our understanding of mechanotransduction by dissecting the relationship between FAs and YAP, which aids in rationally designing biomaterial therapies for modulating YAP expression to treat cancer and fibrosis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMechanotransduction at Focal Adhesions: Interplay among Force, FAK, and YAP:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Mechanotransduction at Focal Adhesions: Interplay among Force, FAK, and YAP"}],"uid":"27707","created_gmt":"2024-06-12 19:29:35","changed_gmt":"2024-06-12 19:31:00","author":"Tatianna Richardson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2024-06-26T15:30:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2024-06-26T17:30:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2024-06-26T17:30:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2024-06-26 19:30:00","gmt_time_end":"2024-06-26 21:30:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2024-06-26 21:30:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"IBB Suddath Seminar Room 1128","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"221981","name":"Graduate Studies"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}