Appreciating force and shape - the rise of mechanotransduction in cell biology

Although the shapes of organisms are encoded in their genome, the developmental processes that lead to the final form of vertebrates involve a constant feedback between dynamic mechanical forces, and cell growth and motility. Mechanobiology has emerged as a discipline dedicated to the study of the effects of mechanical forces and geometry on cell growth and motility - for example, during cell matrix adhesion development - through the signalling process of mechanotransduction.