Biological tissues as materials: fluidity, rigidity and rheology

Over the last decade there has been growing evidence  that dense biological tissue can spontaneously undergo transitions between a solid-like rigid state and a fluid-like state. The rheological state of the tissue in turn influences the transmission of mechanical deformations, which plays a central role in driving developmental processes, such as wound healing and morphogenesis, and tumor progression. In this talk I will describe our computational and analytical investigations of the linear and nonlinear mechanical response of confluent tissue to shear deformations.