Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 40: Cell Mechanics II / Cytoskeleton II
BP 40.3: Vortrag
Freitag, 13. März 2026, 10:30–10:45, BAR/0205
Role of mechanics in early immune recognition — •Piotr Nowakowski1, Guillaume Le Saux2, Esti Toledo2, Sivan Tzdaka2, Shagufta Naaz2, Yuval Segal2, Brit Maman2, Jatin Jawhir Pandit2, Muhammed Iraqi2, Abed Al-Kader Yassin2, Angel Porgador2, Mark Schvartzman2, and Ana-Sunčana Smith1,3 — 1Ruder Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia — 2Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel — 3Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Our immune system depends on cell scale forces, which are implicated in various phenomena ranging from migration to recognition of pathology or for potentiating diseased cells for killing. Here the focus will be on the first steps of immune recognition which hinges on formation of bonds between specialised receptors and their specific ligands called antigens, where mechanics and forces are thought to be essential to discriminate our own antigens from those indicative of pathology.
We will present a specially developed membrane fluctuation model of activation of T cells exposed to a designed pattern of antibodies created using lithographic methods. The model introduces a biomechanical feedback loop that can amplify the response of T cell by relating bounding of receptors to the shape and fluctuations of the membrane and taking into account the exact pattern of bounded antibodies. The model qualitatively explains the experimentally observed effect that grouping of antibodies into small dense packed clusters without changing their overall density can greatly increase T cell response.
Keywords: T cell activation; antibody clustering; nanolithography; membrane fluctuation model