CMCB Life Sciences Seminar: Alba Diz-Munoz, EMBL Heidelberg

Title:
More than the sum: How does a composite interface govern function at the cell surface?

Abstract:
The cell surface of animal cells is a composite interface with several layers, the plasma membrane, the actomyosin cortex and a membrane-to-cortex attachment protein layer that binds them together. Biochemically and mechanically each of these layers differs.My group is taking an engineering-inspired approach, combined with traditional cell biology methods, to quantitatively measure and predict how the various mechanical layers at the surface of animal cells govern function. Together, our work identifies membrane-to-cortex attachment as a critical mechanotransducer in cells, and the membrane-to-cortex distance as a key geometrical parameter that regulates protein activity at the cell surface. 

5 most important publications:

Sitarska E, Almeida SD, Beckwith M, Stopp J, Schwab Y, Sixt M, Kreshuk A, Erzberger A, Diz-Muñoz A. (2021). Curvature sensing steers actin-driven cell migration. bioRxiv. Under revision at Nature Physics. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.26.437199. 

- Sánchez-Iranzo H, Halavatyi A, Diz-Muñoz A. (2022). Strength of interactions in the Notch gene regulatory network determine lateral inhibition patterning. eLife 11:e75429. doi: 10.7554/eLife.75429.

-  Bergert M, Lembo S, Sharma S, Russo L, Milovanović D, Gretarsson KH, Börmel M, Neveu PA, Hackett JA, Petsalaki E, Diz-Muñoz A. (2021). Cell surface mechanics gate embryonic stem cell differentiation. Cell Stem Cell. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2020.10.017.

- Shen Y, Wang X, Lu J, Salfenmoser M, Wirsik NM, Schleussner N, Imle A, Freire Valls A, Radhakrishnan P, Liang J, Wang G, Muley T, Schneider M, Ruiz de Almodovar C, Diz-Muñoz A, Schmidt T. (2020). Reduction of liver metastasis stiffness improves response to bevacizumab in metastatic colorectal cancer. Cancer Cell. 37(6):800-817.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2020.05.005.

- Gopalan A, van Uden L, Sprenger RR, Fernandez-Novel Marx N, Bogetofte H, Neveu P, Meyer M, Noh K-M, Diz-Muñoz A, Ejsing C. (2022). Lipotype acquisition during neural development in vivo is not recapitulated in stem cell-derived neurons. bioRxiv. Under revision at Review Commons. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.31.505694

Host:
Anna Taubenberger (BIOTEC)

Everybody is very welcome!