In Prof. Enrico Klotzsch's group I worked on T cell mechanobiology, in particular on the cellular response to mechanical stimuli such as compression.
Mechanobiology is of special interest to me because in recent years it has become more evident that besides chemical and biological signals, also physical properties of a cell's microenvironment play a crucial role in its regulation and fate in vivo. Thus, it is important to study the impact of varying mechanical signals on cells in vitro, especially when aiming to describe and understand cellular mechanisms in their physiological environment.
During my project, I aimed to better understand the regulation of T cell activation via various mechanical stimuli and for this purpose I used real-time quantitative-PCR to measure the cell response on a transcriptional level.
