A quantitative look at protein diffusion in cells and crowded media

定量观察细胞和拥挤介质中的蛋白质扩散

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-06362
• 负责人: Fradin, Cecile
• 金额: $ 3.86万
• 依托单位: McMaster University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=591012
• 关键词: quantitative; look; protein; diffusion; cells

Living systems are highly dynamic. In particular, most cellular processes involve motions of molecules across or between cellular compartments. Thus understanding how cells work will require understanding how proteins move in the cellular environment. In this context, my research focuses on protein diffusion. My goal is to understand how protein diffusion in the cell interior (a crowded and non-equilibrium environment) might differ from diffusion in simple fluids, and how these differences might impact the many cellular processes involving protein diffusion. To do so, we will take advantage of recent developments in microscopy, which presently allow characterizing diffusion, using fluorescence techniques, over a range of length-scales extending from the size of a cell (~ 10 microns) to the characteristic mesh size of the cell cytoskeleton (~50 nm).

生命系统是高度动态的。具体地说，大多数细胞过程涉及分子在细胞间或细胞间的运动。因此，要了解细胞如何工作，就需要了解蛋白质如何在细胞环境中运动。在这种背景下，我的研究重点是蛋白质扩散。我的目标是了解蛋白质在细胞内部(拥挤和非平衡的环境)中的扩散与在简单流体中的扩散有何不同，以及这些差异可能如何影响涉及蛋白质扩散的许多细胞过程。为此，我们将利用显微镜的最新发展，目前允许使用荧光技术在从细胞大小(~10微米)到细胞细胞骨架的特征网格大小(~50 nm)的一系列长度尺度上表征扩散。