QUANTITATIVE EXAMINATION AND MODELING OF SINGLE MOLECULE MOTION IN LIVING NEURONES

准确量化生物过程的能力是一个非常宝贵的工具。迄今为止，大量的生物数据只是以定性的方式描述。这种方法可能会导致忽略有关过程的微妙但重要的细节，并使不同单元和系统类型之间的比较变得困难。在这项工作中，目标是提供一种定量的方法来描述一个特定的生物过程，蛋白质在细胞膜中的运动。由于细胞膜中的许多蛋白质都是已知的受体（将外界刺激转化为细胞识别的形式的蛋白质），因此了解它们如何以及为什么移动的能力应该会对这一生物过程的基本工作产生相当大的了解。例如，药物的应用是否会对细胞膜蛋白的运输/流动性产生作用？显然，可以明确评估这一点的方法将是有价值的，特别是如果该方法允许在不同细胞类型之间进行比较并用于不同类型的蛋白质。为此，该研究旨在通过分配给它们一个数学函数来提供膜蛋白轨迹的定量表征。这一功能将允许进行重要的跨系统比较，同时将提供单一系统内可能发生的任何变化（如药物效应）的明确指示。

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.