Cell and tissue mechanoadaption: molecular mechanisms and physiopathological relevance

Miguel Ángel del Pozo Barriuso (CNIC)
Cell and tissue mechanoadaption: molecular mechanisms and physiopathological relevance

Keynote Lecture, Monday June 2nd, 2025, 09:30-11:00

Abstract

My lab aims to understand how cells crosstalk with their environment to determine tissue homeostasis and disease. We combine cell biology, biophysics, systematic molecular profiling and in vivo disease models. A particular focus are caveolae, mechanosensing nanoinvaginations of the plasma membrane, key to understand the principles of cell and tissue mechanoadaption, and their role in cardiovascular disease, fibrosis and tumor progression. Here, I will present recent data providing details on the mechanical control of nuclear import of the transcriptional regulator YAP, and a novel mechanism of ECM deposition via exosomes. I will also present newly identified dolines, large membrane depressions formed by caveolin-1
only, able to sense and flatten in response to weak and medium-strength forces. Thus, cells and tissues use at least two different mechanisms to detect force: one gradual and progressive mediated by dolines; the other abrupt, above a certain threshold, mediated by caveolae.

Biosketch

Dr. Miguel Ángel del Pozo Barriuso, a Medical graduate (University of Valladolid, 1991) and Immunology specialist (Hospital de la Princesa, Madrid, 1995), earned his PhD in 1997 at UAM. His postdoctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute (1998-2002) focused on Rho GTPases and intracellular signaling. In 2002, he became an independent researcher at Scripps and later joined CNIC in 2004.

He received the European Young Investigator Award (2004), EMBO Young Investigator (2005), and the Beckman Coulter Prize (2007). Promoted to Full Professor in 2010, he received the Health Sciences Award from Fundación Caja Rural (2012). In 2021, he was elected an EMBO Member and joined Faculty Opinions in Cardiovascular Physiology. In 2022, he was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Council of Fundación GADEA. With an H-index of 59 and 146 publications cited 10,959 times, he is the 8th most-cited Spanish researcher in Cell Biology.