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Cell & Molecular Physiology
Stritch School of Medicine
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Patrick Oakes, PhD

Associate Professor
Cellular Biophysics: Adhesion, Migration, and Mechanosensing

Mechanical interactions are vital components of the most fundamental cellular processes. Without them, cells would be unable to divide, change shape, move or even form multicellular tissues. The Oakes lab is interested in how cells generate, interpret, and use these mechanical signals to regulate their behavior. We investigate these questions through the lens of the cytoskeleton and the role it plays in generating contractile forces and dynamically responding to external mechanical signals. Our lab combines traditional biological approaches with a number of quantitative approaches, including high-resolution microscopy, micropatterning, computational modeling, and optogenetics.

Research Interests

Research Interests: Mechanical interactions are essential components of biology. Without them, cells would be unable to change shape, divide, move or even form multicellular tissues. Mechanotransduction is defined as the process of converting mechanical signals into biochemical signals. These mechanical interactions can be initiated inside the cell, such as from myosin motors pulling on actin filaments, or outside the cell, when the cell encounters different physical environments. Our lab is broadly interested in how cells generate, interpret, and use mechanical signals to regulate their behavior. To investigate these processes we primarily use high-resolution quantitative microscopy, coupled with traditional molecular and cell biology approaches and engineering approaches, including micropatterning, optogenetics, and microfluidics.

Ongoing Research:

  • Investigating how LIM domain proteins recognize strained actin filaments
  • Determining how changes in the physical environmental enables immune cell migration
  • Asking how cells regulate and distribute their ability to generate forces on their environment

Training Opportunities: We live by the maxim that seeing is believing. Trainees in the lab are exposed to multiple forms of live-cell microscopy, including super-resolution microscopy, quantitative image analysis, genetic and pharmacological manipulations of cells, and tools to control cellular morphology and environment. The Oakes & Beach labs work cooperatively with communal space, instrumentation, lab meeting and journal clubs. 

Current Lab Members:

Cara Barnett – PhD Student – Physiology Track (Joint with Beach)

Alexia Caillier, PhD – Postdoc

Shreya Chandrasekar, MS – PhD Student – BMCB Track

Sasha Demeulenaere – MD/PhD Student – Physiology Track (Joint with Beach)

Stefano Sala, PhD – Research Assistant Professor

Joey Tidei – PhD Student – Physiology Track (Joint with Beach)

Maggie Utgaard, MS – PhD Student – BMCB Track (Joint with Beach)

Publications/Research Listings

Selected Recent Publications: (Trainees)

  1. Principles and regulation of mechanosensing

Sala S, Caillier A, Oakes PW

J Cell Sci 137(18):jc2261338 (2024)  PMID:39297391

  1. T cells Use Focal Adhesions to Pull Themselves Through Confined Environments

Caillier A, Oleksyn D, Fowell DJ, Miller J, Oakes PW

Journal of Cell Biology 223(10):e202310067 (2024) PMID: 38889096

  1. Local Monomer Levels and Established Filaments Potentiate Non-Muscle Myosin 2 Assembly

Quintanilla MA, Patel H, Wu H, Sochacki KA, Chandrasekar S, Akamatsu M, Rotty JD, Korobova F, Bear JE, Taraska JW, Oakes PW†, Beach JR†

Journal of Cell Biology 223(4):e202305023 (2024)  PMID: 38353656

  1. Machine learning interpretable models of cell mechanics from protein images

Schmitt MS*, Colen J*, Sala S, Devany J, Seetharaman S, Caillier A, Gardel ML†, Oakes PW†, Vitelli V†

Cell, 187(2):481-494 (2024) PMID: 38194965

  1. Shining a Light on RhoA: Optical Control of Cell Contractility

Chandrasekar S, Beach JR, Oakes PW

(2023) International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, 161:106442 PMID: 37348811

  1. Non-muscle myosin 2 filaments are processive in cells

Vitriol EA*†, Quintanilla MA*, Tidei JJ*, Troughton LD, Cody A, Cisterna BA, Jane ML, Oakes PW†, Beach JR†

(2023) Biophysical Journal, 122(18):3678-3689 PMID: 37218133

  1. Stress fiber strain recognition by the LIM protein testin is cryptic and mediated by RhoA

Sala S, Oakes PW

(2021) Molecular Biology of the Cell, 32(18):1758-1771 PMID: 34038160

Full list of publications: