Collective phenomena in cytoskeletal dynamics during formation of immunological synapses

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Karsten Kruse
• Subject Area: Biophysics
• Term: from 2009 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 149589206

Cells respond to a multitude of external signals like chemical or mechanical stimuli. Stimulation often induces cell polarization through a rearrangement of the cytoskeleton, a network of filamentous proteins that is crucial for many vital cellular processes. While it is obvious that the cytoskeleton is affected by extracellular stimuli, it is also actively involved in signal transduction. The way, in which cytoskeleton organization during signaling emerges from the interplay of cytoskeletal proteins is largely unknown. Employing physical descriptions in combination with fluorescence microscopy, we will analyze cytoskeletal dynamics and its functional implications for cell signaling during formation and maintenance of immunological synapses. Immunological synapses are contact sites of T-cells with antigen-presenting cells and are crucial for T-cell activation eventually leading to the destruction of antigens and infected cells.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Major Instrumentation: Vollautomatisches konfokales Fluoreszenzmikroskop
• Instrumentation Group: 5000 Labormikroskope
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Markus Hoth