CAREER: Physico-Chemical Modeling of Filopodia Initiation, Dynamics, and Spatio-Temporal Regulation

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Garegin Papoian of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill is supported by a CAREER award from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry program to carry out research on the development of a physico-chemical modeling technique for filipodia initiation and dynamics. The physical chemistry of these mesoscopic organelles is not well understood. In this research, Papoian and his group are elucidating the mechanism of the temporally-controlled self-assembly of actin-filament bundles that is driven by coupling among spatially-localized mechanical and chemical interactions. Models of filopodia growth-retraction dynamics are being developed which take into account the spatial localization of regulatory proteins.The work is having a broad impact through its connection to basic biological science, but also through several outreach initiatives to high school students and under-represented minorities that Papoian is developing. He is also developing an online CyberBacteria project which will allow young students to experience the excitement of cutting-edge research problems.