Next Monday, Tobias Meyer of Stanford University will talk about cells that migrate on their own and cells that migrate collectively. His recent work suggests that a core control element based on Cdc42 is particularly important for polarization and directed migration. In addition, cells can make use of additional supportive signaling mechanisms based e.g. on the lipids PIP3 and diacylglycerol. Finally, he will discuss some of recent results on how follower endothelial cells make use of mechanical cues to establish polarity with the cells ahead. The Meyer lab seeks to understand how human cells sense hormones, growth factors and stress and how they integrate and transduce these signals to make decisions to polarize, move or divide. Their projects are focused on understanding the general principles of how signal transduction systems work which often requires the development of new experimental and analysis tools involving fluorescent microscopy, small molecule and light perturbations, systematic siRNA screens, bioinformatics, genomics and quantitative modeling of signaling pathways. Further information at bit.ly/1ieyzOm
Posted on: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 09:56:16 +0000