Mechanotransduction→

Cytoskeletal mechanotransduction is one of the three areas Jessica names as her research focus. The other two are cytokine-driven chondrocyte dysfunction and single-cell morpho-proteomic profiling, and all three converge on the same cell. Her interest here is inherited from the institute she works in. G.E.R.N. studies tissue replacement, regeneration and neogenesis, and how a chondrocyte reads and responds to its mechanical surroundings is central to whether cartilage holds or fails. In May 2025 she spent four full days at the TERMIS EU conference at Messe Freiburg, the European chapter meeting of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society. That is a room where mechanical questions dominate. She attended Sino-German symposia in September and December 2025, presenting her thesis work in progress orally at the December meeting held with Nanjing Medical University. The mechanical arm of the question sits closer to her reading and her institute's wider programme than to the assays she personally runs.