Sorting Out Polarized Transport in Neurons
Event details
| Date | 15.11.2017 |
| Hour | 09:00 › 10:00 |
| Speaker | Prof. Lukas Kapitein, Utrecht University (NL) |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
BIOENGINEERING SEMINAR
Abstract:
Proper positioning of organelles by cytoskeleton-based motor proteins underlies cellular events such as signaling, polarization, and growth. To explore how different motor proteins contribute to neuronal transport and to study the site-specific roles of different organelles, we have established optical control of intracellular transport by using light-sensitive heterodimerization to recruit specific cytoskeletal motor proteins (kinesin, dynein or myosin) to selected cargoes. In addition, to unravel how the specialized organization of the neuronal cytoskeleton guides different motor proteins to either axons or dendrites, we have developed novel approaches for optical nanoscopy. One of these, called motor-PAINT, uses nanometric tracking of motor proteins to super-resolve cytoskeletal fibers and determine their polarity. This has revealed a key architectural principle of the neuronal microtubule cytoskeleton that explains how different motor proteins can selectively transport cargoes to either axons or dendrites.
Bio:
Lukas Kapitein studied Physics and Astronomy at the VU University in Amsterdam, where he also received his PhD in Biophysics in 2007. His postdoctoral training in Neurobiology was at the Erasmus Medical Center, funded by an NWO Vernieuwingsimpuls ALW-VENI grant and an Erasmus MC Fellowship. As of 2011, he works as an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University. In 2013, he received an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council and a VIDI fellowship from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.
Abstract:
Proper positioning of organelles by cytoskeleton-based motor proteins underlies cellular events such as signaling, polarization, and growth. To explore how different motor proteins contribute to neuronal transport and to study the site-specific roles of different organelles, we have established optical control of intracellular transport by using light-sensitive heterodimerization to recruit specific cytoskeletal motor proteins (kinesin, dynein or myosin) to selected cargoes. In addition, to unravel how the specialized organization of the neuronal cytoskeleton guides different motor proteins to either axons or dendrites, we have developed novel approaches for optical nanoscopy. One of these, called motor-PAINT, uses nanometric tracking of motor proteins to super-resolve cytoskeletal fibers and determine their polarity. This has revealed a key architectural principle of the neuronal microtubule cytoskeleton that explains how different motor proteins can selectively transport cargoes to either axons or dendrites.
Bio:
Lukas Kapitein studied Physics and Astronomy at the VU University in Amsterdam, where he also received his PhD in Biophysics in 2007. His postdoctoral training in Neurobiology was at the Erasmus Medical Center, funded by an NWO Vernieuwingsimpuls ALW-VENI grant and an Erasmus MC Fellowship. As of 2011, he works as an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University. In 2013, he received an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council and a VIDI fellowship from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Sylvie Roke, Laboratory for fundamental BioPhotonics, STI - IBI - LBP
Contact
- Institute of Bioengineering (IBI, Dietrich REINHARD)