All cell types continually generate forces in the human body. An interdisciplinary cooperation of biologists and physicists including Heidelberg researcher Prof. Dr Ulrich Schwarz now succeeded in performing high-resolution measurements of cell forces using light to switch them on and off in a controlled manner. The scientists from the universities of Heidelberg and Chicago (USA) used optogenetics and mathematical modelling to identify a central molecule in cellular mechanics. The results of this research were published in the journal Nature Communications.