Conveners
T2 -1 Advances in Physics in Biology and Medicine Symp.: Protein design and diffusion (DPMB) | Symposium sur les progrès en physique dans la biologie et la médecine: conception de protéines et diffusion (DPMB)
- Ozzy Mermut
Protein diffusion plays a ubiquitous role in molecular signalling pathways. As our understanding of the organization and compartmentalization of the cellular environment progresses, we start to better appreciate the complexity of the diffusive transport of proteins, and the control this transport may exert in signalling. One striking example of a diffusion-controlled process is the search of...
DNA topology-relaxing enzymes in the cell nucleus produce simplified topology, allowing entangled duplex DNA strands to pass one through another, essential for many critical cell nuclear processes including successful DNA segregation during cell division. Here, we carry out 1-point and 2-point microrheology on a model system of DNA at physiologically-relevant concentrations with and without...
Molecular motors are essential for powering directional motion at the cellular level, including transport and sorting of cargo, cell locomotion and division, and remodelling of the extracellular environment. Such molecular motors are made out of proteins whose directed motion is coupled to the consumption of chemical free energy. Inspired by such biological machines, significant strides have...
The classical view holds that proteins fold into a three-dimensional structure or native state, which determines the biological function of the protein. According to the energy landscape theory, folding proceeds on a rough funnel-shaped multidimensional free energy surface to the native conformation. However, some proteins have recently been discovered to reversibly switch between two entirely...
Important insights about the signaling mechanisms of G Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) can be learned from their supramolecular assembly. Recent studies in our lab have shown that the M2 muscarinic receptor (M2R), as well as its cognate G protein (Gi), can be purified as oligomers, yet the size and the dynamics of these oligomers, as well as their function are not fully understood in vivo....
