Events
Monday, June 17, 2019
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MB ChB Open DayWarwick Medical SchoolAttending an Open Day will give you the opportunity to learn more about studying medicine here at WMS. You will be able to find out more about the application process, sample a taster clinical skills session, gain an understanding of the course structure, how it is taught and find out from our current students what it is really like to be a medical student at WMS. |
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CDB seminar: Mechanogenetics: Mechanobiology of membrane: from endocytosis to mechanosensitive, Dr Allen Liu, University of MichiganMBU (A151), Medical School BuildingAbstract: Biological membranes are involved in a large number of cellular processes including cell migration, membrane trafficking, and cell signaling. Significant amount of work have elucidated the molecular machineries that regulate dynamic membrane-based processes. In parallel, there are growing interests in recent years in trying to understand how mechanical state of the cells are utilized as a regulatory input to control cellular processes. My lab is interested in studying the mechanochemical responses of biological systems. In this talk, I will present two directions related to this theme. On the cellular level, we have reconstituted the function of a bacterial mechanosensitive channel MscL in mammalian cells. Using this system, we investigated the role of actin cytoskeleton in mediating local membrane tension that activates MscL, and whether MscL expression might influence 3D confined migration, during which cells experience significant stress. On the synthetic level, we are building artificial systems that can sense mechanical input and transduce a biochemical response. To this end, we are attempting to build artificial platelets that mimic the functionalities of natural platelets. I will discuss several modular platforms that we have developed that together will integrate into functional artificial cells. I term this ‘mechanogenetics’ – analogous to optogenetics, where light is used to control cells expressing light-sensitive ion channels – a new biological technique that may have broad applications in cell and synthetic biology. |