Curvature in Biology

Cells and tissues not only interact and respond to the shape of their physical environment but they can also change it. Shape can be modified by processes such as growth, remodeling and/or the development of active forces by a living tissue. A key descriptor of shape is the curvature of the surface, and recent research has indeed shown that curvature not only is controlled by cells and tissues, but also plays an important role as a physical signal that can guide cell and tissue response. The difficulty of this topic is that it requires knowledge coming from a wide range of natural science disciplines, such as biology, mathematics, physics and materials science.