Intracellular particle transport: life in crowded and active networks

• Applicant: Dr. Tatjana Sentjabrskaja
• Subject Area: Statistical Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Complex Systems, Soft and Fluid Matter, Biological Physics
• Term: from 2016 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 329436529

Intracellular particle transport is paramount for keeping up the well-orchestratedmachinery of life in living cells. Therefore there is a long-standing interest shared by cell biologists and biophysicists in unraveling the underlying physical mechanisms. The main aim of this project is to understand how non-equilibrium activity and crowding influence together the complex transport of tracer particles in the cellular cytoplasm. More specifically, I propose to use a reconstituted biomimetic cytoskeletal model system from a minimal set of cellular components to gain a quantitative understanding of the ramifications of passive and active, motor-driven physical processes in the cytoskeleton on diffusive motion of tracer particles.To achieve a characterisation of the dynamics over a wide range of time and length scales, I will rely on a recently developed measurement technique known as Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM), which is a powerful combination of advanced imaging and concepts of light-scattering. The technique circumvents a series of limitations of more traditional methods such as single-particle tracking and conventional light scattering, and I have recently adapted recently to dense strongly interacting colloidal soft matter systems. Hence, extending this novel technique also to crowded multicomponent biological systems to gain detailed spatio-temporal information has become feasible. This interdisciplinary project will therefore open up a new research field in biophysics while at the same time allowing me to broaden my background in soft matter physics to encompass biologically relevant systems.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Netherlands
• Host: Professorin Dr. Gijsje Koenderink