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Event

Guided by curvature: coupling curvature and active forces to shape and propel cells

Title of the event Guided by curvature: coupling curvature and active forces to shape and propel cells
Series LMP Seminar
Organizer Physik lebender Materie
Speaker Prof. Dr. Nir Gov
Speaker institution Dept. of Chemical and Biological Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Type of event Seminar
Category Forschung
Registration required Nein
Details Eukaryotic cells control their shapes in order to fulfill different functions. The forces that deform the cell membrane arise from chemical energy that is converted to mechanical forces, mostly in the cytoskeleton. How cells control the location and timing of these forces in order to achieve their desired shape and dynamics is still an open puzzle. We have been exploring the idea that curved membrane proteins that recruit the acto-myosin cytoskeleton, provide the mechanism for the self-organization of the cytoskeleton and spontaneous formation of cellular shapes. This coupling, between curvature and active forces, was found to give rise to different types of instabilities and patterns. However, most of these results were limited to the linear regime, and we only recently started exploring the behavior of highly deformed shapes. We find that the proposed mechanism may explain some of the striking features of cells, such as the sheet-like ruffles and the lamellipodia of spreading (adherent) cells. We find that it may even contain the minimal ingredients to give rise to motile phenotypes.
Date Start: 20.04.2021, 14:00 Uhr
Ende: 20.04.2021 , 15:30 Uhr
Location Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation (MPIDS) (Am Faßberg 17)
Video conference at www.zoom.us Meeting ID: 997 1155 2453 Passcode: 771001
Contact Dr. Yoav G. Pollack
yoav.pollack@ds.mpg.de