From Morphomechanics to Integral Mechanobiology

The phenomenon of integrity in the development and functioning of living organisms has attracted the attention or researchers for over a hundred years. In the 1970s, in the USA and the Soviet Union, research groups started to consider mechanical forces and stresses as the basis of mechanisms for ensuring the integrity of living organisms. L.V. Beloussov, Professor at Moscow State University, and his students developed a new scientific field in the USSR, studying the role of mechanical forces and stresses in the morphogenesis of animal embryos, this field was called “morphomechanics”. At the beginning of the 21st century, the role of mechanical forces in the activation of biochemical signaling processes and the regulation of gene expression in cells was discovered. We are moving towards the creation of “integral mechanobiology”, a science that will combine the efforts of mechanics, physicists, chemists and biologists in understanding the mechano-dependent processes ensuring the integrity of living systems at different levels of organization.