The link between mechanics and biochemistry has been implicated in a myriad of scientific and medical problems, from orthopedics and cardiovascular medicine, to cell motility and division, to signal transduction and gene expression. Most of these studies have been focused on organ-level issues, yet cellular and molecular level research has become essential over the last decade in this field thanks to the revolutionary developments in genetics, molecular biology, microelectronics, and biotechnology. Developing molecular and cellular biomechanics with relation to biochemistry promises for a bright future with potential impacts on genomics, proteomics, tissue engineering, and medical diagnostics. By examining these issues in novel manners including utilizing nanotechnology, BioMEMS, and computational biology, he explores the linkages among these disciplines. Also, through focusing on nature inspired design principles at the molecular and cellular levels, novel approaches to technology development will be enabled.
In the LeDuc lab, he investigates the link between mechanics and biochemistry with respect to the structural regulation in living cells. Specifically, he is interested in the question of how cells sense and respond to mechanical signals and convert them into biochemical processes. The research involves direct mechanical excitation as well as structural regulation of cells since biochemical signaling may be modulated though the dynamics of cell cytoskeleton. The LeDuc lab consists of researchers trained in a wide variety of fields including engineering, genetics, physics, and chemistry as combining a diversity of viewpoints and talents will continue to lead to exciting breakthroughs. Philip has previously conducted, and will continue to conduct research in probing DNA conformational dynamics, exploring global cell resonance, and utilizing microfluidics, BioMEMS, molecular patterning, and laser modulation to study biological processes including apoptosis, glucocorticoid receptor transport, and cell motility. By combining novel approaches through engineering and biotechnology as well as translating this exciting technology to entrepreneurial products, this multidisciplinary research can make a huge impact to the studies of human health and diseases.
Philip has also been invited to be part of many efforts that are poised to have an impact in the future. He was invited and attended the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) on "Designing Nanostructures at the Interface between Biomedical and Physical Systems". In addition, he was on the ad hoc committee for the NAKFI on Complexity. He also served on a panel requested by the US Senate and House of Representatives for Research, which resulted in the report "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" (his 12 person panel included 2 Nobel Prize winners, a University President, and many members of the National Academies). Furthermore, he was invited and attended the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science Symposium (he is the 1st person from CIT to attend this) as well as was invited and attended the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. He was also on the organizing committee for the 2008 India-American Frontiers of Engineering (IAFOE) for the NAE as well as being the National Student Affairs Chair of BMES. He is a member of the Sloan Foundation Minority PhD program as well as being award a MARC (Minority) Faculty Mentor Award. He has also been involved with mission trips in Africa and Armenia.
2009:
Bellin, R.M.*, Kubicek, J.D., Frigault, M.J., Kamien, A.J., Steward, R., Barnes, H.M., DiGiacomo, M.B., Duncan, L.J., Edgerly, C.K., Morse, E.M., Park, C.Y., Fredberg, J.J., Cheng, C.M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Defining the Role of Syndecan-4 in Mechanotransduction using Surface-Modification Approaches Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (accepted).
Cheng, C.M., Matsuura, K., Wang, I.-J., Kuroda, Y., LeDuc, P.R.*, & Naruse, K.* Fabricating Small-Scale Curved Polymeric Structures with of Convex and Concave Menisci through Interfacial Free Energy Equilibrium Lab on a Chip(accepted).
Lee, B., LeDuc, P.R., Schwartz, R. Parameter Effects On Binding Chemistry In Crowded Media Using A Two-Dimensional Stochastic Off-Lattice Model Physical Review E (accepted).
Lin, Y-W, Cheng, C.M., LeDuc, P.R.*, Chen, C-C* 2008 Understanding Sensory Nerve Mechanotransduction through Localized Elastomeric Matrix Control PLoS ONE 4(1): e4293 (2009).
Yang, J.M., Didier, J.E., Cassino, T.R., & LeDuc, P.* Spatiotemporal Control of Apical and Basal Living Subcellular Chemical Environments through Vertical Phase Separation. Small 5, 1984-1989 (2009).
Kumar, S.*, & LeDuc, P.* Dissecting the Molecular Basis of the Mechanics of Living Cells Experimental Mechanics 49, 11-23 (2009).
Cheng, C.M., Kim, Y.T., Yang, J.M., Leuba, S.H., & LeDuc, P.R.* Dynamics of Individual Polymers Using Microfluidic Based Microcurvilinear Flow. Lab on a Chip 9, 2339-2347 (2009).
Leuba, S.H., Wheeler, T.B., Cheng, C.M., LeDuc, P.R., Fernández-Sierra, M., Quiñones E. 2008 Structure and Dynamics of Single DNA Molecules as Manipulated by Magnetic Tweezers and or Flow Methods 47, 214-222 (2009).
Cheng, C.M., Steward, R.L., & LeDuc, P.R.* 2008 Probing Cell Structure by Controlling the Mechanical Environment with Cell-Substrate Interactions Journal of Biomechanics 42, 187-192 (2009).
Kim, Y.T., Kuczenski, B., LeDuc, P.R.*, & Messner, W.C.* Modulation of Fluidic Resistance and Capacitance for Long-Term, High-Speed Feedback Control of a Microfluidic Interface. Lab on a Chip 9, 2603-2609 (2009).
Chou, S.Y., Cheng, C.M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Composite Polymer Systems with Control of Local Substrate Elasticity and Their Effect on Cytoskeletal and Morphological Characteristics of Adherent Cells.Biomaterials 30, 3136-3142 (2009).
Kuczenski, B., Ruder, W.R., Messner, W.C.*, & LeDuc, P.R.* Probing Cellular Dynamics with a Chemical Signal Generator PLoS ONE4(3): e4847 (2009).
2008:
Helmick, L., Antúnez de Mayolo, A., Zhang, Y., Cheng, C.M., Watkins, S.C., Wu, C. & LeDuc, P.* Spatiotemporal Response of Living Cell Structures in Dictyostelium discoideum with Semiconductor Quantum Dots Nano Letters 8, 1303 – 1308 (2008).
Cheng, C.M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Structural Phase Coexistence under Reversible Thermal Control Advanced Materials 20, 953–958 (2008).
Zhang, Y., Ruder, W.C., & LeDuc, P.* Artificial Cells: Building Bioinspired Systems using Small-Scale Biology Trends in Biotechnology 26, 14-20 (2008).
Cheng, C.M.,& LeDuc, P.R.* Creating Cellular and Molecular Patterns Via Gravitational Force with Liquid Droplets Applied Physics Letters 93, 174106 (3) (2008).
Lu, Y.L., Cheng, C.M., LeDuc, P.R.*, & Ho, M.S.* Controlling the Mechanics and Nanotopography of Biocompatiable Scaffolds through Dielectrophoresis with Carbon Nanotubes Electrophoresis 29, 3123–3127 (2008).
Lee, B., LeDuc, P.R., Schwartz, R. Stochastic Off-Lattice Modeling of Molecular Self-Assembly in Crowded Environments by Green’s Function Reaction Dynamics Physical Review E 78, 031911 (3) (2008).
Huang, X., Cheng, C.M., Wang, L., Wang, B., Su, C.C., Ho, M.S., LeDuc, P.*, & Lin, Q.* Thermally Adjustable Microlenses for Biological Imaging Applied Physics Letters 92, 251904 (3) (2008).
2007:
LeDuc, P.*, Wong, M.*, et al. Toward an In Vivo Biologically-Inspired Nanofactory Nature Nanotechnology 2, 3-7 (2007).
Cheng, C.M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Creating Ordered Small-Scale Biologically-Based Rods through Force-Controlled Stamping Journal of the American Chemical Society 129, 9546-9547 (2007).
Kuczenski, B., LeDuc, P.R.*, & Messner, W.C.* Pressure Driven Spatiotemporal Control of the Laminar Fluid Interface in a Microfluidic Network Lab on a Chip 7, 647–649 (2007).
Zhang, Y., Cheng, C.M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Chemically Encapsulated Structural Elements for Probing the Mechanical Responses of Biologically Inspired Systems Langmuir 23, 8129-8134 (2007).
Trofin, L., & LeDuc, P.R.* Controlled Fabrication of Polymer Nanofibers through Template Synthesis Journal of Applied Polymers 105, 2549-2552 (2007).
LeDuc, P.*, & Schwartz, R.* Computational Models of Molecular Self-Organization in Cellular Environments Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics 48,16-31 (2007).
Tafazzoli, A., Cheng, C.M., Pawashe, C., Sabo, E., Trofin, L., Sitti, M.*, & LeDuc, P.* Subfeature Patterning of Organic And Inorganic Materials Using Robotic Assembly Journal of Material Research 22, 1601-1608 (2007).
Puskar, K., Parisi-Amon, A., Ta’asan, S., Schwartz, R., & LeDuc, P.R.* Modeling Molecular Interactions to Understand Spatial Crowding Effects on Heterodimer Formations Physical Review E 76, 041904 (3) (2007).
LeDuc, P.R.*, & Robinson, D.N.* Using Lessons from Cellular and Molecular Structures for Future Materials Advanced Materials 19, 3761-3770 (2007).
2006:
Cheng, C.M. & LeDuc, P.R.* Force-Controlled Inorganic Crystallization Lithography. Journal of the American Chemical Society 128,12080 (2) (2006).
Cheng, C.-M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Microdrilling for Fabricating Micrometer-Scale Holes in Soft Matter Applied Physics A 85, 195–198 (2006).
Yang, J.M. & LeDuc, P.* Three-Dimensional Phase Separation and Flow Patterns with Novel Multilevel Fluidics. Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics 3, 69-78 (2006).
Cheng, C.M. & LeDuc, P.* Micropatterning Polyvinyl Alcohol as a Biomimetic Material through Soft Lithography with Cell Culture Molecular Biosystems 2, 299–304 (2006).
LeDuc, P.* & Bellin, R.* Nanoscale Intracellular Organization and Functional Architecture Mediating Cellular Behavior Annals of Biomedical Engineering 34,102-113 (2006).
Puskar, K., Ta’asan, S., Schwartz, R., & LeDuc, P.* Spatial Constraints in Polymer Assembly Systems through Coarse Grained Modeling Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics 45, 195-202 (2006).
Cheng, C.-M., Kubicek, J. & LeDuc, P.R.* Novel Polymeric Microlenses for Real-Time Aqueous and Non-aqueous Organic Imaging Applied Physics Letters 88, 053902 (3) (2006).
2004-2005:
Cheng, C.-M., Li, B. & LeDuc, P.R.* Optical Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Polymeric Microstructures. Applied Physics Letters 87,164104 (3) (2005).
Shen, N., Datta, D., Schaffer, C.B., LeDuc, P.R., Ingber, D.E., & Mazur, E. Ablation of Cytoskeletal Filaments and Mitochondria in Live Cells Using a Femtosecond Laser Nanoscissor Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics 2, 17-25 (2005).
LeDuc, P.*, & Wang, Y.* “Protein Adsorption at the Biomaterial/Tissue Interface” in Fundamentals and Applications of Biomaterials (2004).
Puskar, K., Apelstein, L., Ta’asan, S., Schwartz, R. & LeDuc, P.* Understanding actin organization in cell structure through lattice based monte carlo simulations. Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics 1, 123-131 (2004).
Kubicek, J., Brelsford, S., Ahluwalia, P. & LeDuc, P.R.* Three-dimensional cellular stimulation using networked and constrained membranes with differential elasticity. Langmuir 20, 11552-11556 (2004).
2002-2003:
Brock, A., Chang, E., Ho, C.C., LeDuc, P.R., Jiang, X.J., Whitesides, G.W., & Ingber, D. Geometric Determinants of Directional Cell Motility Revealed Using Microcontact Printing Langmuir 19, 1611-1617 (2003).
Takayama, S., Ostuni, E., LeDuc, P.R., Naruse, K., Ingber, D., & Whitesides, G.M. Selective Chemical Treatment of Cellular Microdomains Using Multiple Laminar Streams Chem & Biol 10,123-130 (2003).
Jiang, X., Takayama, S., Qian, X., Ostuni, E., Wu, H., Bowden, N., LeDuc, P.R., Ingber, D.E., & Whitesides, G.M. Controlling Mammalian Cell Spreading and Cytoskeletal Arrangement with Conveniently Fabricated Continuous Wavy Features on Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Langmuir 18, 3273-3280 (2002).
Castedo, M., Roumier, T., Blanco, J., Ferri, K.F., Barretina, J., Tintignac, L.A., Andreau, K., Perfettini, J.L., Amendola, A., Nardacci, R., LeDuc, P., Ingber, D.E., Druillennec, S., Roques, B., Leibovitch, S.A., Vilella-Bach, M., Chen, J., Este, J.A., Modjtahedi, N., Piacentini, M., & Kroemer, G. Sequential involvement of Cdk1, mTOR and p53 in apoptosis induced by the HIV-1 envelope Embo J 21, 4070-80 (2002).
LeDuc, P.R., Ostuni, E., Whitesides, G., & Ingber, D. Use of micropatterned adhesive substrates for control of cell behavior. Methods in Cell Biology69, 385-401 (2002).
1999-2001:
Takayama, S., Ostuni, E., LeDuc, P., Naruse, K., Ingber, D. E. & Whitesides, G. M. Subcellular positioning of small molecules. Nature 411, 1016. (2001).
Takayama, S., Ostuni, E., Qian, X., McDonald, J.C., Jiang, X., Wu, M.-H., LeDuc, P., Ingber, D., & Whitesides, G.M. Topographical Micropatterning of Poly (dimethylsiloxane) Using Laminar Flows of Liquids in Capillaries Advanced Materials 13, 570-577 (2001).
LeDuc, P.R., Whiteley, E.M., Bao, G., & Betenbaugh, M.J. Investigating the Secretion Pathway Using a Secretable Green Fluorescent Protein Biotechnology Progress 16, 716-723 (2000).
Ferri, K.F., Jacotot, E., LeDuc, P., Geuskens, M., Ingber, D.E., Kroemer, G. Apoptosis of Syncytia Induced by HIV-1-ENV/CD4 Interaction. Influence of Cell Shape and Size Experimental Cell Research 261, 119-126 (2000).
LeDuc, P., Haber, C., Bao, G. & Wirtz, D. Dynamics of individual flexible polymers in a shear flow. Nature 399, 564-6. (1999).
* corresponding author
