Cells' 'molecular muscles' help them sense and respond to their environments

(Johns Hopkins Medicine) Johns Hopkins researchers used suction to learn that individual "molecular muscles" within cells respond to different types of force, a finding that may explain how cells "feel" the environment and appropriately adapt their shapes and activities. A computer model the researchers developed also lets them predict what a cell will do in response to altered levels of those "muscles," a common occurrence in a variety of cancers.