Berlin 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 2: Biomaterials and Biopolymers (joint session BP/CPP)
BP 2.10: Vortrag
Montag, 12. März 2018, 12:15–12:30, H 1058
Fibers and glasses: the complex behavior of protein droplets — •Louise Jawerth1,2, Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich3, Suropriya Saha1, Anthony Hyman2, and Frank Jülicher1 — 1MPI for the Physics of Complex Systems. Dresden — 2MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden — 3Biotec, TU Dresden
Liquid-like protein droplets are intracellular compartments that segregate material without the use of a physical barrier such as a membrane. Such compartments are important in a wide array of biological processes ranging from embryonic development to pathological fiber formation during neurodegenerative disease. The existence of many of these compartments has been known for decades; however, only recently has it become clear that these compartments exhibit liquid-like properties. In this talk, I will discuss our efforts to characterize and quantify these new materials in vitro. I will preset our recent work on quantifying the mechanical properties of these droplets using a combination of active and passive microrheology. We find that these droplets are not simple liquids, but become increasingly elastic as the droplets age. This appears to be a universal behavior shared by many protein varieties that form droplets. Furthermore, this and other characteristics are strikingly similar to behaviors observed in glass-like materials suggesting that protein droplets are in fact not simple liquids but, rather, a type of glass.