Philip R. LeDuc

Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Courtesy Appointments, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Biology

Bio

Student-Run Website: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/prl/
Personal Web Page: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/prl/mission%20trips.html
PodCast (in the area of "Disruptive Science and Technology"): 
http://www.regenerativemedicinetoday.com/2011/12/19/20111219.aspx
Founding Director, Center for the Mechanics and Engineering of Cellular Systems: 
http://www.cmu.edu/cmecs/

Do planes, trains, automobiles, and cells have anything in common? The answer of course is yes. Two areas that have always been of interest to Philip are how thing work (or break) and the wonders of nature. His interest in mechanics, first beginning in a youth spent taking apart machines like lawn mowers, has intersected with his fascination with nature at the cellular and molecular levels (as well as organism level now). His lab works toward intersecting mechanical engineering with biology. Philip approaches this intersection by envisioning cells and molecules as “systems” that can be investigated with some of the same fundamental approaches used on machines such as planes and automobiles looking for unifying principles. These systems range from mammalian cell to microorganism to developmental biology systems (e.g. mammalian cells, magnetic bacteria, energy generating bacteria, Xenopus laevis) and applies principles from mechanical engineering fields (e.g. solid mechanics, control theory, fluidics, heat transfer, design) to understand how these principles may apply across diverse nature-based systems.. In addition, as an engineer, he truly is interested in building new systems from the knowledge that one obtains in a similar thought process as one uses to build a new machine. Thus, Philip also works toward thinking about nature-inspired design principles at the molecular and cellular levels to work toward generating novel approaches for technology development. The LeDuc lab pursues these goals through developing and utilizing nanotechnology, microtechnology, computational biology, and control-feedback theory. These intersections are especially fascinating to them as these systems have evolved for distinct reasons (the “initial and boundary conditions” are different). Philip also continues to work in mechanotransduction as this is still fundamental to what he does, but this is part of a broader effort as a Mechanical Engineer. His lab is about how one mechanical engineer approaches these nature-based systems…or why Biology is so great from a Mechanical Engineer’s perspective. By combining novel approaches through engineering and biotechnology as well as translating this exciting technology to entrepreneurial products, this multidisciplinary research can make a huge impact to the studies of human health and diseases, as well as working toward unifying principles in biological systems.

Philip has also been honored to have been invited to be part of many efforts that are poised to have an impact in the future. He served on a panel requested by the US Senate and House of Representatives for Research, which resulted in the report "Rising above the Gathering Storm" (his 12 person panel included 2 Nobel Prize winners, a University President, and many members of the National Academies). He was also invited and attended the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) on "Designing Nanostructures at the Interface between Biomedical and Physical Systems". In addition, he was on the ad hoc committee for the NAKFI on Complexity. Furthermore, he was invited and attended the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science Symposium (he is the 1st person from CIT to attend this) as well as was invited and attended the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. He was also on the organizing committee for the 2008 India-American Frontiers of Engineering (IAFOE) for the NAE as well as being on the Board of Directors and the National Student Affairs Chair of BMES. He is a member of the Sloan Foundation Minority PhD program. He has also been involved with mission trips in Africa and Armenia.

Philip is also blessed to have received a number of awards including the National Science Foundation CAREER, the George Tallman Ladd Research Award, the Russell V. Trader Career Faculty Fellow, the Pan-Hellenic Outstanding Mentor and Role Model, a MARC Minority Faculty Mentor Award, and the Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award (he is the 2nd person ever at Carnegie Mellon to receive this).

The LeDuc lab would like to thank the following organizations for funding: the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Department of Energy-Genome to Life Program, National Institute of Health, Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance, Merck Computational Biology and Chemistry, Sloan Foundation, National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, and Beckman Foundation.

Education

B.S. 1993, M.S. 1995, Vanderbilt University, North Carolina State University

Ph.D. 1999, Johns Hopkins University

Post-doc, Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School

Selected Publications

To request PDFs of any of these publications: http://www.bme.cmu.edu/publications/leduc/index.html

2011:

• LeDuc, P.R.^*, Messner, W.C.,^* & Wikswo, J.P.^* How Do Control-Based Approaches Enter into Biology? Annual Reviews of Biomedical Engineering 13, 369-396 (2011).
• Kim, Y, Joshi, S.D., Messner, W.C.^*, LeDuc, P.R.,^* & Davidson, L.A.^* Detection of Dynamic Spatiotemporal Response to Periodic Chemical Stimulation in a Xenopus Embryonic Tissue. PLoS ONE 6(1), e14624 (2011).
• Li, Z., Zhang, Y., LeDuc, P.R., & Gregory, K.B. Microbial Electricity Generation via Microfluidic Flow Control. Biotechnology and Bioengineering 108, 2061-2069 (2011).
• Kim, Y, Joshi, S.D., Davidson, L.A., LeDuc, P.R.,^* & Messner, W.C.^* Dynamic Control of 3D Chemical Profiles with a Single 2D Microfluidic Platform. Lab on a Chip 11, 2182-2188 (2011).
• Wilson, M.E., Kota, N. Kim, Y., Wang, Y. Stolz, D., LeDuc, P.R. *, & Ozdoganlar, O.B.*, Fabrication of Circular Microfluidic Channels by Combining Mechanical Micromilling and Soft Lithography. Lab on a Chip 11, 1550-1555 (2011).
• Cheng, C.-M., Dawson, J.T., Guo, Q., LeDuc, P.R.^*, & Li, B.^* Maskless fabrication of small-scale structures through controlling phase interactions. Applied Physics A 102, 185-188 (2011).
• Kang, J., Steward, R.L., Kim, Y.T., Schwartz, R., LeDuc, P.R., Puskar, K.M., Response of an Actin Filament Network Model under Cyclic Stretching through a Coarse Grained Monte Carlo Approach. Journal of Theoretical Biology 274, 109-119 (2011).
• Cheng, C.-M., LeDuc, P.R. Lin, Y.-W. Localized Bimodal Response of Neurite Extensions and Structural Proteins in Dorsal-Root Ganglion Neurons with Controlled Polydimethylsiloxane Substrate Stiffness. Journal of Biomechanics 44, 856-862 (2011).
• Lee, B., LeDuc, P.R., Schwartz, R. Unified Regression Model of Binding Equilibria in Crowded Environments. Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing group) 1, 97 (2011).
• Hazar, M., Steward, R.L., Chang, C.-J., Orndoff, C.J., Zeng, Y., Ho, M.-S., LeDuc, P.R., Cheng, C.-M. Modulating Material Interfaces through Biologically-Inspired Intermediates. Applied Physics Letters (accepted).
• Zeng, Y., Lai, T. Koh, C.G., LeDuc, P.R.*, Chiam, K.-H.* Investigating Circular Dorsal Ruffles Through Varying Substrate Stiffness and Mathematical Modeling. Biophysical Journal (accepted)
• Chou, S.Y., Cheng, C.M., Cheng, C.-C.^*, LeDuc, P.R.^* Localized Neurite Outgrowth Sensing Via Substrates With Alternative Rigidities. Soft Matter (accepted)
• Ruder, W.C.^*, LeDuc, P.R.^* Bioinspirations: Cell-Inspired Small-Scale Systems for Enabling Studies in Experimental Biomechanics. Integrative and Comparative Biology (Former journal name: American Zoologist) 51(1), 128-132 (2011).

2010:

• Lin, Y.W., Bellin, R.M., Cheng, C.M., Steward, R., Cheng, Y.R., LeDuc, P.R.^*, & Chen, C.C.,^* Probing Localized Neural Mechanotransduction through Surface-Modified Elastomeric Matrices and Electrophysiology. Nature Protocols 714, 5 (4), 714-724 (2010).
• Steward, R.L., Cheng, C.M., Wang, D.L., & LeDuc, P.R.^* Probing Cell Structure Responses Through a Shear and Stretching Mechanical Stimulation Technique. Cell Biochem Biophys 56, 115-124 (2010).
• Huang, X., Ni, J., Yan, LeDuc, P.R., Yao, J., Lin, Q. Thermally Tunable Polymer Microlenses for Biological Imaging. Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 19 (6), 1444-1449, 2010.
• Singh, M., Gracio, J., LeDuc, P., Gonçalves, P., Marques, P., Gonçalves, G., Marques, F., Silva, V., Capela e Silva, F., Potes, J., Sousa, A. Integrated Biomimetic Carbon Nanotube Composites for In Vivo Systems. Nanoscale 2, 2855-2863 (2010)
• Kim, Y.T., Pekkan, K., Messner, W.C.,^* & LeDuc, P.R.^* Three-Dimensional Chemical Profile Manipulation Using Two-Dimensional Autonomous Microfluidic Control. Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) 132, 1339-1347 (2010).

2009:

• Bellin, R.M.*, Kubicek, J.D., Frigault, M.J., Kamien, A.J., Steward, R., Barnes, H.M., DiGiacomo, M.B., Duncan, L.J., Edgerly, C.K., Morse, E.M., Park, C.Y., Fredberg, J.J., Cheng, C.M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Defining the Role of Syndecan-4 in Mechanotransduction using Surface-Modification Approaches. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (52), 22102-22107 (2009).
• Lin, Y-W, Cheng, C.M., LeDuc, P.R.*, Chen, C-C* 2008 Understanding Sensory Nerve Mechanotransduction through Localized Elastomeric Matrix Control. PLoS ONE 4(1): e4293 (2009).
• Yang, J.M.,Didier, J.E., Cassino, T.R., & LeDuc, P.* Spatiotemporal Control of Apical and Basal Living Subcellular Chemical Environments through Vertical Phase Separation. Small 5, 1984-1989 (2009).
• Kumar, S.*, & LeDuc, P.* Dissecting the Molecular Basis of the Mechanics of Living Cells. Experimental Mechanics 49, 11-23 (2009).
• Cheng, C.M., Kim, Y.T., Yang, J.M.,Leuba, S.H., & LeDuc, P.R.* Dynamics of Individual Polymers Using Microfluidic Based Microcurvilinear Flow. Lab on a Chip 9, 2339-2347 (2009).
• Leuba, S.H., Wheeler, T.B., Cheng, C.M., LeDuc, P.R., Fernández-Sierra, M., Quiñones E. 2008 Structure and Dynamics of Single DNA Molecules as Manipulated by Magnetic Tweezers and or Flow. Methods 47, 214-222 (2009).
• Cheng, C.M., Matsuura, K., Wang, I.-J., Kuroda, Y., LeDuc, P.R.*, & Naruse, K.* Fabricating Small-Scale Curved Polymeric Structures with of Convex and Concave Menisci through Interfacial Free Energy Equilibrium. Lab on a Chip 9, 3306-3309 (2009).
• Lee, B., LeDuc, P.R., Schwartz, R. Parameter Effects On Binding Chemistry In Crowded Media Using A Two-Dimensional Stochastic Off-Lattice Model. Physical Review E 80, 041918 (2009).
• Cheng, C.M., Steward, R.L., & LeDuc, P.R.* 2008 Probing Cell Structure by Controlling the Mechanical Environment with Cell-Substrate Interactions. Journal of Biomechanics 42, 187-192 (2009).
• Kim, Y.T., Kuczenski, B., LeDuc, P.R.*, & Messner, W.C.* Modulation of Fluidic Resistance and Capacitance for Long-Term, High-Speed Feedback Control of a Microfluidic Interface. Lab on a Chip 9, 2603-2609 (2009).
• Chou, S.Y., Cheng, C.M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Composite Polymer Systems with Control of Local Substrate Elasticity and Their Effect on Cytoskeletal and Morphological Characteristics of Adherent Cells. Biomaterials 30, 3136-3142 (2009).
• Kuczenski, B., Ruder, W.R., Messner, W.C.*, & LeDuc, P.R.* Probing Cellular Dynamics with a Chemical Signal Generator. PLoS ONE 4(3): e4847 (2009).

2008:

• Helmick, L., Antúnez de Mayolo, A., Zhang, Y., Cheng, C.M., Watkins, S.C., Wu, C. & LeDuc, P.* Spatiotemporal Response of Living Cell Structures in Dictyostelium discoideum with Semiconductor Quantum Dots. Nano Letters 8, 1303 - 1308 (2008).
• Zhang, Y., Ruder, W.C., & LeDuc, P.* Artificial Cells: Building Bioinspired Systems using Small-Scale Biology. Trends in Biotechnology 26, 14-20 (2008).
• Cheng, C.M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Structural Phase Coexistence under Reversible Thermal Control. Advanced Materials 20, 953-958 (2008).
• Cheng, C.M.,& LeDuc, P.R.* Creating Cellular and Molecular Patterns Via Gravitational Force with Liquid Droplets. Applied Physics Letters 93, 174106 (3) (2008).
• Lu, Y.L., Cheng, C.M., LeDuc, P.R.*, & Ho, M.S.* Controlling the Mechanics and Nanotopography of Biocompatiable Scaffolds through Dielectrophoresis with Carbon Nanotubes. Electrophoresis 29, 3123-3127 (2008).
• Lee, B., LeDuc, P.R., Schwartz, R. Stochastic Off-Lattice Modeling of Molecular Self-Assembly in Crowded Environments by Green's Function Reaction Dynamics. Physical Review E 78, 031911 (3) (2008).
• Huang, X., Cheng, C.M., Wang, L., Wang, B., Su, C.C., Ho, M.S., LeDuc, P.*, & Lin, Q.* Thermally Adjustable Microlenses for Biological Imaging. Applied Physics Letters 92, 251904 (3) (2008).

2007:

• LeDuc, P.*, Wong, M.*, et al. Toward an In Vivo Biologically-Inspired Nanofactory Nature. Nanotechnology 2, 3-7 (2007).
• Cheng, C.M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Creating Ordered Small-Scale Biologically-Based Rods through Force-Controlled Stamping. Journal of the American Chemical Society 129, 9546-9547 (2007).
• Kuczenski, B., LeDuc, P.R.*, & Messner, W.C.* Pressure Driven Spatiotemporal Control of the Laminar Fluid Interface in a Microfluidic Network. Lab on a Chip 7, 647-649 (2007).
• Zhang, Y., Cheng, C.M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Chemically Encapsulated Structural Elements for Probing the Mechanical Responses of Biologically Inspired Systems. Langmuir 23, 8129-8134 (2007).
• Trofin, L., & LeDuc, P.R.* Controlled Fabrication of Polymer Nanofibers through Template Synthesis. Journal of Applied Polymers 105, 2549-2552 (2007).
• LeDuc, P.*, & Schwartz, R.* Computational Models of Molecular Self-Organization in Cellular Environments. Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics 48,16-31 (2007).
• Tafazzoli, A., Cheng, C.M., Pawashe, C., Sabo, E., Trofin, L., Sitti, M.*, & LeDuc, P.* Subfeature Patterning of Organic And Inorganic Materials Using Robotic Assembly. Journal of Material Research 22, 1601-1608 (2007).
• Puskar, K., Parisi-Amon, A., Ta'asan, S., Schwartz, R., & LeDuc, P.R.* Modeling Molecular Interactions to Understand Spatial Crowding Effects on Heterodimer Formations. Physical Review E 76, 041904 (3) (2007).
• LeDuc, P.R.*, & Robinson, D.N.* Using Lessons from Cellular and Molecular Structures for Future Materials. Advanced Materials 19, 3761-3770 (2007).

2006:

• Cheng, C.M. & LeDuc, P.R.* Force-Controlled Inorganic Crystallization Lithography. Journal of the American Chemical Society 128,12080 (2) (2006).
• Cheng, C.-M., & LeDuc, P.R.* Microdrilling for Fabricating Micrometer-Scale Holes in Soft Matter. Applied Physics A 85, 195-198 (2006).
• Yang, J.M. & LeDuc, P.* Three-Dimensional Phase Separation and Flow Patterns with Novel Multilevel Fluidics. Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics 3, 69-78 (2006).
• Cheng, C.M. & LeDuc, P.* Micropatterning Polyvinyl Alcohol as a Biomimetic Material through Soft Lithography with Cell Culture. Molecular Biosystems 2, 299-304 (2006).
• LeDuc, P.* & Bellin, R.* Nanoscale Intracellular Organization and Functional Architecture Mediating Cellular Behavior. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 34,102-113 (2006).
• Puskar, K., Ta'asan, S., Schwartz, R., & LeDuc, P.* Spatial Constraints in Polymer Assembly Systems through Coarse Grained Modeling. Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics 45, 195-202 (2006).
• Cheng, C.-M., Kubicek, J. & LeDuc, P.R.* Novel Polymeric Microlenses for Real-Time Aqueous and Non-aqueous Organic Imaging. Applied Physics Letters 88, 053902 (3) (2006).

2004-2005:

• Cheng, C.-M., Li, B. & LeDuc, P.R.* Optical Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Polymeric Microstructures. Applied Physics Letters 87,164104 (3) (2005).
• Shen, N., Datta, D., Schaffer, C.B., LeDuc, P.R., Ingber, D.E., & Mazur, E. Ablation of Cytoskeletal Filaments and Mitochondria in Live Cells Using a Femtosecond Laser Nanoscissor. Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics 2, 17-25 (2005).
• LeDuc, P.*, & Wang, Y.* Protein Adsorption at the Biomaterial/Tissue Interface. Fundamentals and Applications of Biomaterials (2004).
• Puskar, K., Apelstein, L., Ta'asan, S., Schwartz, R. & LeDuc, P.* Understanding actin organization in cell structure through lattice based monte carlo simulations. Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics 1, 123-131 (2004).
• Kubicek, J., Brelsford, S., Ahluwalia, P. & LeDuc, P.R.* Three-dimensional cellular stimulation using networked and constrained membranes with differential elasticity. Langmuir 20, 11552-11556 (2004).

2002-2003:

• Brock, A., Chang, E., Ho, C.C., LeDuc, P.R., Jiang, X.J., Whitesides, G.W., & Ingber, D. Geometric Determinants of Directional Cell Motility Revealed Using Microcontact Printing. Langmuir 19, 1611-1617 (2003).
• Takayama, S., Ostuni, E., LeDuc, P.R., Naruse, K., Ingber, D., & Whitesides, G.M. Selective Chemical Treatment of Cellular Microdomains Using Multiple Laminar Streams. Chem & Biol 10,123-130 (2003).
• Jiang, X., Takayama, S., Qian, X., Ostuni, E., Wu, H., Bowden, N., LeDuc, P.R., Ingber, D.E., & Whitesides, G.M. Controlling Mammalian Cell Spreading and Cytoskeletal Arrangement with Conveniently Fabricated Continuous Wavy Features on Poly(dimethylsiloxane). Langmuir 18, 3273-3280 (2002).
• Castedo, M., Roumier, T., Blanco, J., Ferri, K.F., Barretina, J., Tintignac, L.A., Andreau, K., Perfettini, J.L., Amendola, A., Nardacci, R., LeDuc, P., Ingber, D.E., Druillennec, S., Roques, B., Leibovitch, S.A., Vilella-Bach, M., Chen, J., Este, J.A., Modjtahedi, N., Piacentini, M., & Kroemer, G. Sequential involvement of Cdk1, mTOR and p53 in apoptosis induced by the HIV-1 envelope. Embo J 21, 4070-80 (2002).
• LeDuc, P.R., Ostuni, E., Whitesides, G., & Ingber, D. Use of micropatterned adhesive substrates for control of cell behavior. Methods in Cell Biology 69, 385-401 (2002).

1999-2001:

• Takayama, S., Ostuni, E., LeDuc, P., Naruse, K., Ingber, D. E. & Whitesides, G. M. Subcellular positioning of small molecules. Nature 411, 1016. (2001).
• Takayama, S., Ostuni, E., Qian, X., McDonald, J.C., Jiang, X., Wu, M.-H., LeDuc, P., Ingber, D., & Whitesides, G.M. Topographical Micropatterning of Poly (dimethylsiloxane) Using Laminar Flows of Liquids in Capillaries. Advanced Materials 13, 570-577 (2001).
• LeDuc, P.R., Whiteley, E.M., Bao, G., & Betenbaugh, M.J.  Investigating the Secretion Pathway Using a Secretable Green Fluorescent Protein. Biotechnology Progress 16, 716-723 (2000).
• Ferri, K.F., Jacotot, E., LeDuc, P., Geuskens, M., Ingber, D.E., Kroemer, G. Apoptosis of Syncytia Induced by HIV-1-ENV/CD4 Interaction. Influence of Cell Shape and Size. Experimental Cell Research 261, 119-126 (2000).
• LeDuc, P., Haber, C., Bao, G. & Wirtz, D. Dynamics of individual flexible polymers in a shear flow. Nature 399, 564-6. (1999).