| Date and Time: |
2007-11-20 16:00:00 - 17:00:00 |
| Speaker: |
Takanari Inoue
Stanford University |
| Title: |
Engineering Cellular Behavior: The Polarity Machinery of Chemotactic Cells |
| Summary : | Cell migration has been intensely investigated due to its involvement in a
number of physiological events including angiogenesis, immunity, wound
healing, and the establishment of neuronal networks. While the molecular
mechanisms underlying cell migration are becoming clearer, investigations
are limited without tools for temporally manipulating protein activity and
second messenger levels in living cells. I have previously introduced an
inducible heterodimerization strategy to control GTPase activity on the
second timescale. As an extension of this technique, I have recently
developed a system for the in situ manipulation of phosphoinositides,
critical regulators of cell migration. In this study I apply both the
GTPase and phosphoinositide inducible systems to quantitatively probe the
polarity machinery of chemotactic cells in order to address a fundamental
question in cell migration: how do cells sense a small gradient of external
cues and convert it into morphological polarization?
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