Quantitative Cell Biology and Morphogenesis

在动物中，细胞协调它们的行为以形成、修复或侵入组织。集体细胞运动是至关重要的，例如，正常胚胎发育和伤口愈合，并有助于癌症转移。然而，在活体动物中，细胞用于协调其运动的机制还没有得到很好的理解。越来越多的证据表明，为了一起移动，细胞重组分子机制，使它们能够粘附到其他细胞（连接蛋白）并产生收缩力（细胞骨架网络），以增加细胞的凝聚力。然而，协调分子重排驱动协调细胞运动的机制尚不清楚。此外，集体移动的细胞需要具有延展性，以适应其邻居的移动以及它们迁移的复杂细胞外环境。细胞变形性是如何实现的仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。Fernando-Gonzalez博士和他的团队将利用果蝇胚胎中驱动胚胎伤口修复的集体细胞运动来研究体内协调细胞运动的基本方面。使用独特的，多学科的实时成像，计算图像分析和广泛的遗传，药理学和生物物理操作的组合，他们将研究控制与协调细胞运动相关的蛋白质网络重组的机制，以及使细胞能够改变其形状以有效地一起移动的分子线索。调节细胞骨架动力学的信号在物种间是保守的，超过75%的与人类疾病有关的基因存在于果蝇中。因此，这项研究计划的发现将对理解胚胎发育，组织修复和最终人类病理学过程中的集体细胞迁移产生直接影响。

In animals, cells coordinate their behaviours to form, repair, or invade tissues. Collective cell movements are critical, for example, for normal embryonic development and wound healing and contribute to cancer metastasis. However, the mechanisms used by cells to coordinate their movements in living animals are not well understood. Increasing evidence indicates that, to move together, cells reorganize the molecular machinery that allows them to adhere to other cells(junctional proteins) and to generate contractile forces (cytoskeletal networks) in an attempt to increase cell cohesiveness. The mechanisms that orchestrate the molecular rearrangements that drive coordinated celll movements, however, are unclear. In addition, cells moving collectively need to be ductile to accommodate the movements of their neighbours and the complex extracellular environment in which they migrate. How cellular deformability is accomplished remains an outstanding question. Dr. Fernandez-Gonzalez and his team will use the collective cell movements that drive embryonic wound repair in fruit fly embryos to study the fundamental aspects of coordinated cell movement in vivo. Using a unique, multidisciplinary combination of live imaging, computational image analysis, and a wide array of genetic, pharmacological, and biophysical manipulations, they will investigate the mechanisms that control the reorganization of protein networks associated with coordinated cell movements, as well as the molecular cues that enable cells to change their shapes to move together efficiently. The signals that regulate cytoskeletal dynamics are conserved across species, and over 75% of genes involved in human disease exist in fruit flies. Therefore, the findings of this research program will have direct implications for the understanding of collective cell migration during embryonic development, tissue repair, and ultimately human pathology.