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	Andre Clapson Postdoc In plant cells, the cortical cyto-skeleton plays an essential role in the evolving growth rate and direction. Starting from the setup of a cell-level simulation of the cortical microtubule array, my goal is to reach the tissue scale and the related morphogenesis issues. In parallel, I am working with the Heisler group to test the simulation against observation.
	Serge Dmitrieff Postdoc work in progress.
	Iana Kalinina Postdoc Xenopus egg cytoplasmic extracts have the fascinating ability to assemble mitotic spindles. It has been shown that exogenous chromatin bound to beads is sufficient to trigger spindle assembly. Combined with micropatterning techniques and protein depletion it is an excellent tool for mitotic spindle research. Although a single egg has a big volume (about 1 μl), extract preparation done by centrifuging the eggs requires crushing together about 1000 of eggs. The problem comes with variation in the quality of the eggs, which can cause irreproducible results. It would be better to use a single egg for assembly of spindle arrays. Therefore, the aim of my project is to develop a spindle assembly assay based on microfluidics, in collaboration with the Merten group. We hope to run ~10 assays in parallel on a single chip, where each assay is performed with the material of a single egg.
	Andrea Picco Postdoc I study endocytosis, one of the fundamental trafficking processes in the cell, using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model. My research is focussed on understanding the spatio-temporal organization of the proteins involved in the endocytic process. Remarkably, the endocytic invagination and vesicle budding rely on the actin cytoskeleton. I combine the light microscopy expertise present in the Kaksonen group, together with the modelling expertise present in Nedelec group, to investigate the organization of the actin cytoskeleton and its interplay with the membrane at the endocytic locus.
	Antonio Politi Postdoc In my research I combine different live cell imaging and computational methods to understand cytoskeleton organization. As a model organism I use budding yeast and HeLa cells. I initially worked on the nuclear movements during budding yeast mating, more recently my attention focuses on the formation of the mitotic spindle in HeLa cells and how different microtubule binding proteins contribute to its structure and stability.
	Celine Pugieux Technician Chromatin plays a key role during mitosis: it activates signaling pathways that modify cytoplasm locally such as to promote microtubule assembly. We produce synthetic chromatin of desired mass and shape with a micro-lithographic approach. We then use Xenopus laevis egg extracts and fluorescence confocal microscopy to follow spindle assembly dynamics. The results obtained on different patterns show that the chromatin mass and geometry controls mitotic spindle formation.
	Aastha Mathur PhD student work in progress.
	Francois Nedelec Group leader Our long-term research objective is to understand cytoskeletal organization in living cells, with an emphasis on mitosis. We develop in-vitro assays, quantitative image analysis and cytosim, a computer simulation to study cellular architecture from a mechanistic perspective, modeling the interactions of fibers and associated proteins such as molecular motors. At the moment, I am finishing up the next version of Cytosim.
	Kasia Tarnawska PhD student It is known that microtubules present 2 pathways of nucleation: centrosome and chromatin mediated. We investigate a new technique, deep UV illumination, to pattern chromatin coated beads to follow the spindle assembly dynamics in Xenopus laevis egg extract. This method can circumvent some of the limitations of micro-contact printing commonly used in our lab. Combining this technique with a microfluidic device will offer the ability to work with smaller volumes of extract, shorter reaction time and the possibility of running many experiments in parallel.
	Jonathan Ward Postdoc One of the oldest and most important questions in biology is how life organises itself into forms that are both very precise in the sense that they are repeatable but also general in the sense that a huge variety of forms can be generated by subtle changes in the organization of the component parts. The fundamental unit of life is the cell and is a natural starting point for investigating this question. My research is focussed at understanding how the cytoskeleton directs changes in cell shape during the life cycle of the model eukaryotic organism S. pombe.