Imaging methods in mechanosensing: a historical perspective and visions for the future

Over the past three decades, as mechanobiology has become a distinct area of study, researchers have developed novel imaging tools to discover the pathways of biomechanical signaling. Early work with substrate engineering and particle tracking demonstrated the importance of cell-extracellular matrix interactions on the cell cycle as well as the mechanical flux of the intracellular environment. Most recently, tension sensor approaches allowed directly measuring tension in cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions. We retrospectively analyze how these various optical techniques progressed the field and suggest our vision forward for a unified theory of cell mechanics, mapping cellular mechanosensing, and novel biomedical applications for mechanobiology.