Internship and thesis proposals
Polarity dynamics in cell migration and coupling to cellular footprint

Domaines
Biophysics
Soft matter
Nonequilibrium statistical physics
Physics of living systems
Non-equilibrium Statistical Physics

Type of internship
Expérimental
Description
Cell migration is driven by the asymmetric activity of its cytoskeleton, which is controlled by several interconnected intracellular phenomena: RhoGTPases activity, organelle positioning, cell-substrate adhesion... We also discovered recently that epithelial cells deposit a footprint on their way, which in turn feedbacks on cell polarity to act as an external self-attracting cue. Some of the relationships between those phenomena, cytoskeletal properties and associated cell displacement have been described. However, there is no comprehensive overview of the specific properties that emerge from this complex dynamical network, in particular its responsiveness to external stimuli. The goal of this project is twofold: (1) extract the dynamical relationships between those various intracellular processes from microscopy videos of migrating cells and (2) understand how those dynamics integrate the signals from cellular footprint.

Contact
Joseph D'Alessandro
Laboratory : IJM - UMR7592
Team : Cell Adhesion and Mechanics
Team Website
/ Thesis :    Funding :