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<article article-type="research-article" dtd-version="1.1" xml:lang="en"><front xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:c="http://ns.iop.org/namespaces/content" xmlns:fn="http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions" xmlns:m="http://ns.iop.org/namespaces/meta"><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">pb</journal-id><journal-id journal-id-type="coden">PBHIAT</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title xml:lang="en">Physical Biology</journal-title><abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="IOP" xml:lang="en">PhysBio</abbrev-journal-title><abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher" xml:lang="en">Phys. Biol.</abbrev-journal-title></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="ppub">1478-3975</issn><issn pub-type="epub">1478-3975</issn><publisher><publisher-name>IOP Publishing</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">pbabd9aa</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1088/1478-3975/abd9aa</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="manuscript">abd9aa</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="other">PB-101296.R1</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="display-article-type"><subject>Paper</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>Guided assembly of cancer ellipsoid on suspended hydrogel microfibers estimates multi-cellular traction force</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><contrib-id authenticated="false" contrib-id-type="orcid">0000-0003-1916-039X</contrib-id><name name-style="western"><surname>Lee</surname><given-names>Cheng-Tai</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="affiliation01">1</xref><xref ref-type="fn" rid="pbabd9aaafn1">*</xref><email>ctl40@cantab.ac.uk</email></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><contrib-id authenticated="false" contrib-id-type="orcid">0000-0003-4191-4768</contrib-id><name name-style="western"><surname>Gill</surname><given-names>Elisabeth L</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="affiliation02">2</xref><xref ref-type="aff" rid="affiliation03">3</xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><contrib-id authenticated="false" contrib-id-type="orcid">0000-0001-6580-8236</contrib-id><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname><given-names>Wenyu</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="affiliation02">2</xref><xref ref-type="aff" rid="affiliation03">3</xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gerigk</surname><given-names>Magda</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="affiliation02">2</xref><xref ref-type="aff" rid="affiliation03">3</xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><contrib-id authenticated="false" contrib-id-type="orcid">0000-0003-3517-6578</contrib-id><name name-style="western"><surname>Terentjev</surname><given-names>Eugene M</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="affiliation01">1</xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><contrib-id authenticated="false" contrib-id-type="orcid">0000-0003-2619-730X</contrib-id><name name-style="western"><surname>Shery Huang</surname><given-names>Yan Yan</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="affiliation02">2</xref><xref ref-type="aff" rid="affiliation03">3</xref><xref ref-type="fn" rid="pbabd9aaafn1">*</xref><email>yysh2@cam.ac.uk</email></contrib><aff id="affiliation01">
               <label>1</label>Cavendish Laboratory, <institution xlink:type="simple">University of Cambridge</institution>, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, <country>United Kingdom</country>
            </aff><aff id="affiliation02">
               <label>2</label>Department of Engineering, <institution xlink:type="simple">University of Cambridge</institution>, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, <country>United Kingdom</country>
            </aff><aff id="affiliation03">
               <label>3</label>The Nanoscience Centre, <institution xlink:type="simple">University of Cambridge</institution>, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0FF, <country>United Kingdom</country>
            </aff></contrib-group><author-notes><fn id="pbabd9aaafn1"><label>4</label><p>Authors to whom any correspondence should be addressed.</p></fn></author-notes><pub-date pub-type="ppub"><month>5</month><year>2021</year></pub-date><pub-date pub-type="epub"><day>10</day><month>3</month><year>2021</year></pub-date><pub-date pub-type="open-access"><day>10</day><month>3</month><year>2021</year></pub-date><volume>18</volume><issue>3</issue><elocation-id content-type="artnum">036001</elocation-id><supplementary-material content-type="colour-figures" orientation="portrait" position="float" xlink:type="simple"/><history><date date-type="received"><day>30</day><month>9</month><year>2020</year></date><date date-type="rev-recd"><day>13</day><month>12</month><year>2020</year></date><date date-type="accepted"><day>7</day><month>1</month><year>2021</year></date><date date-type="oa-requested"><day>22</day><month>12</month><year>2020</year></date></history><permissions><copyright-statement>© 2021 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2021</copyright-year><license license-type="cc-by" xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" xlink:type="simple"><license-p>
                  <graphic content-type="print" orientation="portrait" position="float" xlink:href="https://cfn-live-content-bucket-iop-org.s3.amazonaws.com/journals/1478-3975/18/3/036001/2/pbabd9aalicense.eps?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAYDKQL6LTV7YY2HIK&amp;Expires=1615979033&amp;Signature=SlKKGj%2FIz0LLXt5EjGqdCxvHEUw%3D" xlink:type="simple"/>
                  <graphic content-type="online" orientation="portrait" position="float" xlink:href="https://cfn-live-content-bucket-iop-org.s3.amazonaws.com/journals/1478-3975/18/3/036001/2/pbabd9aalicense.gif?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAYDKQL6LTV7YY2HIK&amp;Expires=1615979033&amp;Signature=b7qe6TVkEKpiDTeCTZT%2BLxgAvZQ%3D" xlink:type="simple"/>Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" xlink:type="simple">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence</ext-link>. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.</license-p></license></permissions><self-uri content-type="pdf" xlink:href="https://cfn-live-content-bucket-iop-org.s3.amazonaws.com/journals/1478-3975/18/3/036001/2/pb_18_3_036001.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAYDKQL6LTV7YY2HIK&amp;Expires=1615979033&amp;Signature=wNy39dNYtFThvetLS6EYgNysV60%3D" xlink:type="simple"/><abstract><title>Abstract</title><p>Three-dimensional (3D) multi-cellular aggregates hold important applications in tissue engineering and <italic toggle="yes">in vitro</italic> biological modeling. Probing the intrinsic forces generated during the aggregation process, could open up new possibilities in advancing the discovery of tissue mechanics-based biomarkers. We use individually suspended, and tethered gelatin hydrogel microfibers to guide multicellular aggregation of brain cancer cells (glioblastoma cell line, U87), forming characteristic cancer ‘ellipsoids’. Over a culture period of up to 13 days, U87 aggregates evolve from a flexible cell string with cell coverage following the relaxed and curly fiber contour; to a distinct ellipsoid-on-string morphology, where the fiber segment connecting the ellipsoid poles become taut. Fluorescence imaging revealed the fiber segment embedded within the ellipsoidal aggregate to exhibit a morphological transition analogous to filament buckling under a compressive force. By treating the multicellular aggregate as an effective elastic medium where the microfiber is embedded, we applied a filament post-buckling theory to model the fiber morphology, deducing the apparent elasticity of the cancer ellipsoid medium, as well as the collective traction force inherent in the aggregation process.</p></abstract><kwd-group kwd-group-type="author"><kwd>tissue mechanics</kwd><kwd>hydrogel</kwd><kwd>
               <italic toggle="yes">in vitro</italic> models</kwd><kwd>fiber force probe</kwd><kwd>helical buckling</kwd><kwd>Winkler post-buckling</kwd></kwd-group><funding-group><award-group xlink:type="simple"><funding-source xlink:type="simple">H2020 European Research Council<named-content content-type="funder-id" xlink:type="simple">https://doi.org/10.13039/100010663</named-content>
               </funding-source><award-id>ERC-StG/758865</award-id></award-group></funding-group><counts><page-count count="11"/></counts><custom-meta-group><custom-meta xlink:type="simple"><meta-name>ccc</meta-name><meta-value>1478-3975/21/036001+11$33.00</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta xlink:type="simple"><meta-name>printed</meta-name><meta-value>Printed in the UK</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta xlink:type="simple"><meta-name>crossmark</meta-name><meta-value>yes</meta-value></custom-meta></custom-meta-group></article-meta></front></article>