A project on “Biomechanics at Micro- and Nanoscale Levels,” the title of this
book, was approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology of Japan in 2003. This four-year-project, carried out by fourteen
prominent Japanese researchers, finished in March 2007. The project consisted of
four fields of research, which are equivalent to the four chapters of this book,
namely, Cell Mechanics, Cell Response to Mechanical Stimulation, Tissue
Engineering, and Computational Biomechanics.
Our project can be summarized as follows. The essential diversity of
phenomena in living organisms is controlled not by genes but rather by the
interaction between the micro- or nanoscale structures in cells and the genetic code,
the dynamic interaction between them being especially important. Therefore, if the
relationship between the dynamic environment of cells and tissues and their function
can be elucidated, it is highly possible to find a method by which the structure and
function of such cells and tissues can be regulated. The first goal of this research
was to understand dynamic phenomena at cellular and biopolymer-organelle levels
on the basis of mechanics. An attempt was then made to apply this understanding to
the development of procedures for designing and producing artificial materials and
technology for producing or regenerating the structure and function of living
organisms.
Volumes I, II and III of a series of books related to this project have already
been published, the present volume being the last in this series. The results obtained
by individual researchers participating in this project are summarized in this volume.