Sudhakar K. Venkatesh
Richard L. Ehman
Editors

2014

Physicians have used their sense of touch as a powerful diagnostic tool for centuries. It has long been known that many disease processes are associated with major changes in the mechanical properties of tissue. Historically, investigators in the fields of biomechanics and physiology have sought to integrate our knowledge of the mechanical properties of normal and abnormal tissue into our understanding of biological function. Building on these advances, we have more recently seen the emergence of the new science of mechanobiology. This has revealed the profound extent to which forces and physical properties of the cellular environment can affect cellular behavior.