Research
Cells have three sources of energy: chemical, electrical, and mechanical
We know very little about the third. The study of mechanical transduction is difficult because the stimulus at the site of a transducer is generally unknown. Contractile forces are the end effectors of cell migration, division, morphogenesis, wound healing and cancer invasion. Do these energies interact with each other? How? What happens when they interact? Many more questions like these are unanswered. We aim to use Synthetic Biology and Membrane Protein Engineering to answer them and use the power that comes from this approach to apply knowledge to create wisdom to serve our fellowmen.
Megadalton mechanosensing structure (MMS)
A) Cell-cell interactions occur through proteic structures. These are formed by membrane proteins in adhesion junctions.
B) A detailed depiction of the MMS. Proteins are drawn to approximately scale to give the viewer the sense of the molecular crowding. Membrane protein dimensions are also provided to explain that not all of them bring the neighboring plasma membranes to the same distance. On the cytosolic side, adapter (purple) and effector (green) proteins attach the membrane structures to the actomyosin network or keratin filaments. Desmosomes do not bind to the actomyosin network but to keratin filaments. Adapter proteins vary between 500 to 3,000 amino acids while effector proteins range between 100 to 2,000 amino acids.
Why we collaborate?
We truly believe that people will benefit from our research. We also believe people don’t have decades to wait for our research to advance to translational solutions. We call upon all those who are interested in helping people, to collaborate, and further our designs in order for the research to become clinical solutions at a speedy pace.
