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The Laboratory for Material Chemomechanics in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering develops experimental and computational approaches toward the understanding of a key phenomenon in active materials: coupling between the mechanical and structural/functional states. By exploring coupling at the fundamental force and length scales of atoms and molecules, we seek to find commonalities among material systems ranging from metallic crystals to living biological cells that we can exploit for human advantage in sensing, actuating, and transduction applications. As a result, we develop in parallel several enabling nanomechanical frameworks such as nano/picoindentation, atomic force microscopy and functional force imaging. |
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Adherent cells are contractile, exerting traction on adhesion sites, here idealized as circular areas. J. M. Maloney et al. |
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© 2009, Van Vliet Group and Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 8-214; Cambridge, MA 02139 USA |
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