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SYGF: Guest Country Symposium France: Soft, Active and Alive: Emergent Properties in Living Matter

SYGF 1: Guest Country Symposium France: Soft, Active and Alive: Emergent Properties in Living Matter (SYGF)

SYGF 1.4: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 16:45–17:15, HSZ/AUDI

More than the sum: how composite interfaces govern function — •Alba Diz-Muñoz — European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany

The cell surface of animal cells is a composite interface with several layers, the plasma membrane, the actomyosin cortex and a membrane-to-cortex attachment protein layer that binds them together. Biochemically and mechanically each of these layers differs. My group is taking an engineering-inspired approach, combined with traditional cell biology methods, to quantitatively measure and predict how the various mechanical layers at the surface of animal cells govern function. Together, our work identifies membrane-to-cortex attachment as a critical mechanotransducer in cells, and the membrane-to-cortex distance as a key geometrical parameter that regulates protein activity at the cell surface.

Keywords: Mechanobiology; Tension; Cortex; Membrane; Cell