The National Institutes of Health awarded Jian Zhang, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Arkansas, $1.82 million to study "the mechanobiology of morphogenesis," which could lead to greater understanding of how diseases like cancer spread.

Mechanobiology explores how physical cues, such as force, stiffness or pressure, affect cell behavior through interactions with the environment, while morphogenesis is the process of developmental biology by which cells and tissues assume their ultimate shape and structures in the body.

"The overall goal of the study is to develop and apply novel, quantitative tools to study how physical forces impact the dynamic behavior of cells or tissues," Zhang explains. "Of particular interest is how these physical forces relate to tissue development and the spread of diseases like cancer."

Zhang is interested in understanding how physical forces influence the way cells move around, how they grow and divide, and how they differentiate into different types of cells, particularly how these processes go awry in diseases like cancer. He notes that the movement of cells is a key factor in the spread of cancer through the body.

"Physical factors play an important role in how cells move," he says. "If cells encounter physical resistance, they cannot move, so they must overcome that resistance to reach a new location."

As an example, Zhang notes that there are "stiff" and "soft" environments in the body that may impose different levels of resistance to moving cells. Stiffness refers to the mechanical properties of tissues (how much they resist deformation). Tissues can vary widely in stiffness: bone and cartilage are very stiff; brain, lung and fat are among the softest, and heart tissue falls in the intermediate range.

These mechanical properties play essential roles in normal physiology, including development, stem cell differentiation and tissue regeneration. Each tissue type has an appropriate stiffness range required for proper function.

In diseases, this stiffness often changes. Tissue stiffening is commonly associated with disease progression, such as fibrosis in the heart or liver, or tumor development in breast tissue. These pathological changes in stiffness can influence cell behavior in important ways — affecting growth, migration and treatment response.

Better understanding the mechanisms by which cancer cells negotiate different levels of physical resistance could be useful to interrupting its movement.

While Zhang's goal is not to directly develop therapies, his work aims to build a foundation for understanding how cells interface with their physical environment — knowledge that could eventually lead to better therapeutic strategies.

Zhang was a research project leader in the Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center (or AIMRC), and with the receipt of this award, he will "graduate" from the AIMRC Research Project Leader program. The work funded by Zhang's latest award will be a continuation of the research he began with the funding support from the AIMRC beginning in 2024. 

"Dr. Zhang and his team are leading the development and application of innovative techniques that allow us to look at tissue development and disease progression from a very unique angle," said Narasimhan Rajaram, director of the AIMRC. "Dr. Zhang is a key researcher at the AIMRC, and we are excited to watch his research grow over the next five years with this award."  

The AIMRC was founded in 2021 by Kyle Quinn with support from the university and an NIH Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence award. AIMRC is now led by Rajaram, a professor of biomedical engineering, who became its director in the summer of 2025.

Zhang says, "As an AIMRC research project leader, I received not only funding for the research that now continues through my new NIH award but also critical support from the AIMRC leadership and team."

He adds that "monthly meetings with the director, core directors and my mentoring team helped me establish collaborations, utilize core facilities effectively and gain valuable guidance on funding strategies, lab management, mentoring and career development. The grant preparation support provided by AIMRC allowed me to focus fully on the science during the NIH grant application and other grant submissions without having to worry about administrative hurdles."

The AIMRC has established research cores specializing in bioenergetics, imaging and spectroscopy, and data science to aid campus researchers like Zhang. By combining technical expertise and providing access to advanced equipment in these core areas, along with a cross-disciplinary faculty development and mentoring program, the AIMRC aims to foster a cohort of independent researchers with federally funded projects related to metabolism.