Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 28: Biopolymers and Biomaterials II (jointly with BP)
CPP 28.2: Vortrag
Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 10:45–11:00, ZEU 260
Formation and Confinement of Actin Networks in Microchambers — •Siddharth Deshpande1, Dagmar Steinhauser2, and Thomas Pfohl1,2 — 1Chemistry Department, University of Basel, Switzerland — 2Max Plank Institute for Dynamics and Self Organization, Göttingen, Germany
Our aim is to study the spatiotemporal evolution of biopolymer networks (e.g. actin, collagen, fibrin) with the aid of microfluidics and using a bottom-up approach. We have designed microfluidic devices consisting of microchambers of different shapes and sizes connected to the main channel by narrow connecting channels. High flow conditions can be achieved in the main channel to control the concentration and composition of the aqueous solution while the transport of molecules into the microchambers is governed by diffusion.
Rhodamine labeled actin monomers are used for the experiments and visualized by fluorescence microscopy. Once polymerized, the actin filaments formed inside the chamber are confined and form an entangled actin network, which can be analyzed for various network properties such as connectivity distribution of nodes, length distribution of links, node fluctuations, link fluctuations and fluctuations in the mesh size.
The experiments with actin bundles in confinement show that the persistence length of actin bundles (Lp) increases proportionally with the number of filaments present in a bundle (n) as: Lp≈ n1.3. In the next step, we try to form more complex networks using cross-linking proteins such as α-actinin, filamin, HMM and use FRET microscopy to analyze it.