Abstract: An apparatus useful for studying cells in culture under conditions which reproduce their natural, in vivo mechanical environment is disclosed. The device comprises an airtight well having an optically transparent compliant base of a biologically compatible material on which said cells may be grown and an optically transparent, removable cap, coupled with a ported, airtight reservoir which reservoir has an optically transparent base and which reservoir can be filled with pressurizing media to create cyclic variations in hydrostatic pressure beneath said compliant base, causing said compliant base to deform and thereby exert a substantially uniform biaxial strain on the cells attached thereto.