Andre Clapson
In plant cells, the cortical cyto-skeleton plays an essential role in the evolving growth rate and direction. Starting from the setup of a cell-level simulation of the cortical microtubule array, my goal is to reach the tissue scale and the related morphogenesis issues. In parallel, I am working with experts in plant development to test the simulation against observation.
Andrea Picco
I study endocytosis, one of the fundamental trafficking processes in the cell, using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model. My research is focussed on understanding the spatio-temporal organization of the proteins involved in the endocytic process. Remarkably, the endocytic invagination and vesicle budding rely on the actin cytoskeleton. I combine the light microscopy expertise present in the Kaksonen group, together with the modelling expertise present in Nedelec group, to investigate the organization of the actin cytoskeleton and its interplay with the membrane at the endocytic locus.
Laure Plantard
Spindle assembly on micropatterned DNA bead surfaces has recently been developed in the laboratory. This new technique enables one to follow the formation of hundreds of spindles at once. I am bringing my experience as a molecular and cell biologist to quantitatively analyze both the organization and the formation of the mitotic spindle and provide data to refine our models of spindle assembly.
Antonio Politi
Modeling can help us to understand fundamental questions in biology...
Celine Pugieux
Chromatin plays a key role during mitosis: it activates signaling pathways that modify cytoplasm locally such as to promote microtubule assembly. We produce synthetic chromatin of desired mass and shape with a micro-lithographic approach. We then use Xenopus laevis egg extracts and fluorescence confocal microscopy to follow spindle assembly dynamics. The results obtained on different patterns show that the chromatin mass and geometry controls mitotic spindle formation.
Francois Nedelec
Our long-term research objective is to understand cytoskeletal organization in living cells, with an emphasis on mitosis. We develop in-vitro assays, quantitative image analysis and cytosim, a computer simulation to study cellular architecture from a mechanistic perspective, modeling the interactions of fibers and associated proteins such as molecular motors. At the moment, I am finishing up the next version of Cytosim.
Beat Rupp
Microtubules, motor complexes (Ncd and Eg5-like) and many lines of C++ are the ingredients of my project. I mix and shake them in order to investigate metaphase spindles in a computational approach. Running several thousand simulations with slightly different starting conditions and analyzing them allows me to screen for good parameter sets. These are used to model a fully dynamic model of metaphase spindles that are eventually aligned depending on cortical cues during mitosis. Using these basics I want to model multipolar centrosome fusions in HeLa cells.
Kasia Tarnawska
It is known that microtubules present 2 pathways of nucleation: centrosome and chromatin mediated. We investigate a new technique, deep UV illumination, to pattern chromatin coated beads to follow the spindle assembly dynamics in Xenopus laevis egg extract. This method can circumvent some of the limitations of micro-contact printing commonly used in our lab. Combining this technique with a microfluidic device will offer the ability to work with smaller volumes of extract, shorter reaction time and the possibility of running many experiments in parallel.
Jonathan Ward
One of the oldest and most important questions in biology is how life organises itself into forms that are both very precise in the sense that they are repeatable but also general in the sense that a huge variety of forms can be generated by subtle changes in the organization of the component parts. The fundamental unit of life is the cell and is a natural starting point for investigating this question. My research is focussed at understanding how the cytoskeleton directs changes in cell shape during the life cycle of the model eukaryotic organism S. pombe.