SGER: Mechano-Chemical Approach to Actin Filament Bundle Self-Assembly and Growth

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Garegin Papoian of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill is supported by a Small Grant for Exploratory Research from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry program to carry out preliminary work to develop a computational model of filopodia self-assembly and growth-retraction dynamics. The long term goal of the work is to elucidate the mechanism of the temporally-controlled self-assembly of actin-filament bundles. The approach is taking into account the inherently random nature of the underlying chemical events and spatial localization of regulatory proteins. The SGER award is allowing the PI and his group to significantly extend the capabilities of their stochastic simulation software package, StochTools, to allow modeling of various rilopodial processes. The PI and his students then plan to carry out similuations of a proposed initial model which will lay the groundwork for a future more involved study. The work is having a broader impact through its role in illuminating molecular processes within the cell. It is also impacting student training and helping to develop a cyber community of researchers through the graphical user interface, CyberBacteria, that the group is developing.