QUANTITATIVE EXAMINATION AND MODELING OF SINGLE MOLECULE MOTION IN LIVING NEURONES

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The ability to accurately quantify biological processes is an invaluable tool. To date large volumes of biological data are simply described in a qualitative way. This approach may result in subtle but important details about a process being overlooked and makes comparison between different cell and system types difficult. In this work the goal is to provide a quantitative method with which to describe a specific biological process, the movement of proteins in the membrane of a cell. As many of the proteins in the cell membrane are known to be receptors (proteins that translate stimuli from the outside world into a form that is recognized by the cell) the ability to understand how and why they move should yield considerable insight into fundamental workings of this biological process. For example, might the application of a drug have an action on the trafficking/mobility of a cell membrane protein? Clearly a method that could unequivocally assess this would be of value, particularly if the method allowed comparisons to be made across cell type and be used for different types of protein. To this end the study seeks to provide a quantitative characterization of membrane protein trajectories by assigning them a mathematical function. This function would permit important cross system comparison while at the same time would provide a clear indication of any change that may have taken place within a single system, such as a drug effect.