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Date: Friday, March 1, 2019
Time: 3:00 pm
Place: 162 2nd floor auditorium
Speaker: Sebastian Fuerthauer, Research Scientist, Biophysical Modeling Group, CCB
Title: From Moving Molecules to Living Matter: The Physics of the Cytoskeleton
Abstract: Cells, the building blocks of eukaryotic life, move. This is what enables single cells to divide, groups of cells to organize into tissues, and tissues to become organisms as complex as ourselves. On cellular scales this motion is actuated by the cytoskeleton, a collection of dynamic polymer filaments and molecular scale motors that convert chemical energy into mechanical work. Much progress has been made in identifying the key molecular players in cytoskeletal assemblies, yet how they self-organize into the complex cellular scale machinery that underlies life remains largely unknown. In this talk, I will discuss our recent progress in deciphering the physics of the cytoskeleton. I will discuss our advances in the context of the physics of the mitotic spindle, which moves chromosomes during cell division, and the cell cortex, which actuates cellular deformations. Finally I will give a perspective on our advances towards designing similar systems in the lab.