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Data-driven traction force microscopy in 3D collagen hydrogels

Barrasa-Fano, J.; Kimps, L.; Apolinar-Fernandez, A.; Nunez Ortega, E.; Muntz, I.; Koenderink, G.; Sanz-Herrera, J.; Van Oosterwyck, H.

2025-11-17 biophysics
10.1101/2025.11.17.688772 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Quantitative measurements of cell-generated forces in fibrillar hydrogels have traditionally modeled the extracellular matrix as a continuum. Here we present a data-driven 3D traction force microscopy (DD-TFM) approach that reconstructs discrete collagen fiber networks from second-harmonic generation images and assigns fiber mechanics calibrated by shear rheology. In silico tests confirm the robustness of an inverse force-recovery method, and application to cells in collagen reveals pulling patterns and fiber-level stress distributions.

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"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.