主题：Mechanical regulation of cancer malignancy

时间：2025年4月25日 10:00-11:00

地点：力学楼二楼会议室

主讲人：谭又华 教授

邀请人：张作启、黄国友

报告人简介：Prof. Youhua Tan received the BS degree in Precision Machinery & Instrumentation from University of Science and Technology of China in 2005. After that, he obtained the PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from City University of Hong Kong in 2010. Dr. Tan completed the post-doctoral training from 2011 to 2015 and joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as Assistant Professor since July 2015 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2021. His research interests include mechanobiology, biomechanics, mechano-oncology, and mechanomedicine for cancer therapy.

Prof. Tan’s work has been published in Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Science, PNAS, Oncogene, Research, Nano Letters, Bioactive Materials, Acta Biomaterialia, etc. His research has been supported by various external funding bodies, including Research Grant Committee (Collaborative Research Fund, General Research Fund, and Early Career Scheme), Health and Medical Research Fund, NSFC, and Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission. Prof. Tan has won several major awards, such as 教育部高等学校科学研究优秀成果奖(自然科学二等奖), Young Investigator Award from Biomedical Engineering Society, International Association of Advanced Materials Scientist Award, several Best Paper Award, and Outstanding Young Researcher in Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

报告摘要：In classic biology, cancer has been believed to arise due to accumulation of mutations. Recent years have been witnessing the increasing appreciation of mechanical cues in tumor progression. The research in my laboratory mainly investigates the cancer problem from a biomechanical perspective and elucidates the roles of various mechanical factors in tumor metastasis, such as tumor cell mechanics, mechanics of tumor tissues, mechanical heterogeneity of tumor microenvironment, fluid shear stress in blood circulation, mechanical confinement, etc. The current on-going research projects cover two broad areas: fundamental research—how different mechanical cues impact tumor cell functions and the underlying mechanisms; translational research—the development of mechanotargeting strategies against cancer. We have found that 1) the soft tumor microenvironment is critical in maintaining the stemness of tumor cells and thus their malignancy; 2) the primary tumor tissue is mechanically heterogeneous and soft niches within the primary tumor facilitate breast cancer brain metastasis through HDAC3-mediated mechanotransduction signaling; 3) weakening/strengthening tumor cell cytoskeleton enhances/suppresses their self-renewal and tumor formation ability, suggesting that tumor cell softening during progression drives malignancy; 4) intercellular contractile force promotes drug resistance through Notch-MVP-mediated nuclear drug export. All these findings demonstrate the significance of mechanics in malignancy, supporting a new notion that cancer may be not only a genetic but also a ‘mechanical’ disease.