Title: The Physics of Cell Adhesion and Mechano-Sensing
Speaker: Robijn Bruinsma, UCLA
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2004, 1:00 pm
Location: Hill Center, Room 260, Rutgers University, Busch Campus, Piscataway, NJ
Abstract:
The adhesion between cells plays an essential role for cell development and motility. Elegant micromechnical experiments are now able to measure the forces exerted by adhesion sites that link a cell to the surrounding tissue. These studies have shown that these adhesion sites - clusters of proteins - are able to both measure and modulate mechanical force produced in the cell interior by motor proteins. The talk will review the classical physics of adhesion, the way classical adhesion is modified for cell-cell interaction, and the physical principles of mechano-sensing.
Seminar sponsored by DIMACS/BIOMAPS Seminar Series on Quantitative Biology and Epidemiology.