Professor Rob Cross

Date: 9 March 2012

Location: Medical Teaching Centre

Time: Welcome reception starting at 11:45. The lecture will start at 12:15

Inner Space Walking

Inner space, the world inside our cells, is every bit as mysterious as outer space.

Inner space is crisscrossed by an array of linear tracks called the cytoskeleton, which serves the cell like the railway system of a country. Right now, in every cell in your body, tiny walking machines are striding along these tracks, carrying cargoes of molecular parts.

My research career has been spent trying to understand how these walking molecular motors work. I will discuss why this is an important problem, whose imminent solution will have deep consequences, and not just for biomedicine. I will reminisce a little and stir up the silt of collective memory using icons that encapsulate my influences and enthusiasms, and those of my generation.

I will mention my collaborators, who are also my friends, and say something about collaborations. I will talk about the importance of mentoring. But most of all I want to talk about the science that we want to do in the new CMCB here at Warwick. The adventure of walking with molecular motors through inner space is just beginning: extraordinary, revolutionary discoveries lie just around the corner.