Speaker
Dr
Natascha Leijnse
(NBI)
Description
The cells in our bodies are highly dynamic: Myriads of vital
processes take place inside a cell every second. An individual cell can use
filopodia, dynamic 'cellular fingers', to 'feel', explore, and manipulate its
close by environment for instance during development as well as during
cancer invasion.
In this talk I will explain how we use optical tweezers in combination with
fluorescence microscopy, to visualize the rotational dynamics of single
filopodia as we simultaneously measure the forces they exert. I will
furthermore show that a simple active mechanism is sufficient to explain
much of the observed filopodial dynamics.
