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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 29: Posters: Biopolymers \& Biomaterials

BP 29.10: Poster

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 17:15–20:00, P3

Microrheology of composite networks of microtubules and F-actin — •Marcel Bremerich¹, Frederick C. MacKintosh², and Christoph F. Schmidt¹ — ¹3. Physikalisches Institut, Georg-August-Universität, 37077 Göttingen — ²Department of Physics & Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit , 1081 HV Amsterdam

Understanding the material properties of living cells remains challenging. The mechanics are determined by the viscoelastic properties of the cytoskeleton, which is composed of various biopolymer filaments together with associated proteins and vary over large spatial and temporal scales.

In optical trapping-based microrheology micron-sized probe particles are used to investigate the local mechanical response of reconstituted networks of biopolymers with high bandwidth and high spatial resolution.

We have performed one- and two-particle microrheology in composite networks of microtubules and F-actin as model systems for the cytoskeleton. We used a combination of active and passive measurements to quantify the material properties over a wide frequency range of up to 100 kHz. We obtained complex shear moduli and compared the results to theoretical descriptions of composite networks as well as to the properties of similar networks consisting only of microtubules or F-actin respectively.