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A simple model predicts many properties of the adhesions between a cell and a 2D surface
Mathematical Biology| Speaker: | Sam Walcott, UC Davis |
| Location: | 2112 MSB |
| Start time: | Mon, Oct 3 2011, 2:10PM |
Description
The interaction between tissue cells and their surroundings is thought to
be important to various medically-relevant processes such as cancer
metastasis and stem cell differentiation. When placed on a 2D surface,
tissue cells interact with that surface through molecular plaques called
focal adhesions. The cell assembles and, eventually, disassembles these
complex multi-protein structures differently depending on the stiffness of
the surface and the force applied by the cell to the surface. I will
discuss a very simple molecular model of an adhesion that can describe
several aspects of focal adhesion growth and decay. This model makes
several specific predictions about adhesion growth that, when measured in
live cells, turn out to be consistent with experiments. Simplifications of
the model lead to some analytic expressions that provide insight into why
cell-surface interactions behave as they do.