BRENT HOFFMAN

Collective Migration

We are building novel tension sensors and creating new analysis tools to characterize the spatial and temporal dynamics of mechanosensitive signaling during collective cell migration.

The overall goal of the Cell and Molecular Mechanobiology Lab is advancing the current understanding of mechanotransduction by implementing an interdisciplinary approach founded in the fundamentals of cell biology, biophysics and biomolecular engineering.Our work relies on principles and techniques from fields such as:

Molecular-scale insight from genetics and cell signaling enables the development of therapeutics, often small molecules or antibodies, that can stop or reverse the effects of the disease by manipulating cell signaling. As cell signaling is most often understood through the principles of solution biochemistry, such as binding affinities and reaction rates, the investigated mechanisms and proposed therapeutics have often been based on these same principles. Yet, over the past decade, virtually every fundamentally important cellular process, including cell migration, division, death, differentiation, and metabolism, has been found to be sensitive to mechanical stimuli. Furthermore, many of the disease states most impacting human health but currently lacking effective treatments are at least partially caused or exacerbated by perturbed mechanical stimuli. 

The lack of effective treatments for mechanosensitive diseases reveals a knowledge gap in our understanding of the regulation of biological function. The field of mechanobiology has emerged to study the processes by which cells detect and respond to mechanical stimuli, termed mechanotransduction. However, application of insights from mechanobiological studies to the treatment of human disease is limited by the fact that our understanding of mechanotransduction is mainly conceptual and lacks the molecular-scale, mechanistic detail required for successful therapeutic development. We are addressing these challenges through integrated efforts in research, and we believe that these endeavors will be a key step in developing novel therapeutic approaches for the mechanosensitive diseases currently impacting human health.

Graduate students interested in the Hoffman Lab's research should apply to the Duke Biomedical Engineering (BME) PhD Program.  For additional inquiries, please contact Dr. Hoffman.

Highland, R. E., A. Rancu, H. Price, S. M. Parker, M. Reynolds, B. D. Hoffman, and A. Wax. “Multimodal segmentation of dynamic subcellular features using quantitative phase imaging and FRET-based sensors [Invited].” Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics and Image Science, and Vision 41, no. 11 (November 1, 2024): C38–48. https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.534440.

Congrats to T. Curtis Shoyer who successfully defended his Ph.D. Dissertation on experimental and modeling approaches to investigate molecular-scale mechanosensitive processes in collective cell migration. We wish him the best of luck in his postdoc and scientific career!

T. Curtis Shoyer and Dr. Evan Gates published their work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) titled "Coupling during collective cell migration is controlled by a vinculin mechanochemical switch". See more under the Publications tab, or check out a brief summary of the paper here. Way to go, Curtis and Dr. Gates!