Centrosomal Microtubule Polarization in Presence of Patterned Chromatin: Model vs. Simulation
- The change of orientation of microtubule
densities in response to DNA is our current topic of
interest.
The figures depict the experimental setup developed in collaboration with members of the Nedelec lab: A.Dinarina, M.Loose, M.J.Mora-Coral,C.Pugieux) which allows the printing of DNA patterns on a glass surface in predetermined 2D geometry.
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The experiment performed involves preparing Xenopus egg extract for mitotic assays, flowing in fluorescent tubulin, centrosomes and imaging on a confocal microscopy setup with temperature control at 20 deg C.
Using image processing, we can obtain quantitative measures of aster asymmetry as a function of distance from DNA
Our findings indicate a prediction that the RanGTP gradient depedent regulation of the microtubule lengths by chromatin must occur by the action of a sharply decaying long range gradient. (see Publications
(this has been published in Athale CA, Dinarina A, Mora-Coral M, Pugieux C, Nedelec F, Karsenti E.(2008)
Regulation of microtubule dynamics by reaction cascades around chromosomes.
Science.Nov 21;322(5905):1243-7.)
We believe that the modular nature of the spindle
system allows us to quantitatively study effects like
microtubule density distribution around centrosomes, while
ignoring other processes, which we know to be involved in
the overall process of spindle assembly.
Pattern formation
The formation of stripe patterns
modelled as a PDE in 1D over time with an activator and
inhibitor is exhibted in an example MATLAB
program- evolutions of activator (left) and inhibitor
(right)  - Currently some interactions have revived my interest in using ActionScript and FLASH to visualize models and simulations. Some recent examples can be seen here .
- Tumor modeling using
autonomous agents and mass balance kinetics description and source-code
Teaching
- Script of practicals at predoc course 2005
- Methods in Cell-Biology course 2005: script
Tools
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