Biophysics at the cell surface: Development of materials to sense the forces within us
Event details
| Date | 28.09.2012 |
| Hour | 10:15 |
| Speaker | Prof Khalid Salaita, Emory University |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
The interplay between physical inputs and biochemical signaling regulates a significant number of biological processes that range from the action of efflux pump transporters to cell adhesion receptors and mounting an immune response. A major challenge to elucidating chemo-mechanical coupling lies in the development of new materials and techniques to measure forces in the cell membrane - which is a essentially a soft interface. In this talk, I will describe the synthesis and characterization of fluorescence-based turn–on probes for imaging the molecular tension in living cells in real time ( Stabley et al. Nature Methods 2012). All force gauges require two parts: a spring with a known force constant, and an accurate ruler. Likewise, our sensor takes advantage of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between fluorophores as a molecular "ruler" and flexible polymer chain as a reversible entropic spring with a known spring constant. The sensor allows one to quantify molecular forces (1 –100 pN) with high spatial and temporal resolution for a wide range of receptors and cell types using a conventional fluorescence microscope. I will describe the application of these sensors to image forces associated with clathrin-mediated endocytosis, Notch receptor activation, and integrin adhesion receptors. Given the superior optical and physical properties of gold nanoparticles, we have also developed second generation gold-nanoparticle-based force sensors and these will be described in detail. Finally, I will discuss the development of the "universal force sensor" which employs chemical and enzymatic ligation strategies to generate recombinantly expressed protein force sensors.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Dr. Marta Mameli
Contact
- Dr. Marta Mameli