Nuclear Deformation Lets Cells Gauge Their Physical Confinement

How cells sense their physical microenvironment remains incompletely understood. In two recent Science articles, Lomakin et al. (2020) and Venturini et al. (2020) demonstrate that progressive nuclear deformation associated with cellular confinement triggers intracellular events that promote cell contractility and migration, revealing the nucleus to serve as a central mechanosensor.