IBEC is hosting two members from the Mechano·Control network. On the one hand, Dimitri Kaurin, PhD student from Marino Arroyo group at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) that will be staying at IBEC for at least one year and on the other hand, Amy Beedle, postdoc from Sergi Garcia-Manyes at Kings College London (KCL).
Dimitri Kaurin started his stay at Pere Roca-Cusachs’ laboratory in December 2018 and it is planned to be for at least a year. One of the objectives of Dimitri’s stay is to work on a protocol to study cell-cell adhesion using a controlled system based on lipid bilayers of controlled viscosity. “Using AFM technique, we expect to access some information about cell-cell adhesion under force” says Dimitri. In the context of this research he will also visit Manuel Salmeron laboratory in Glasgow University this march to learn some techniques about functionalizing lipid bilayers with cadherins.
Dimitri Kaurin working in the laboratory at IBEC
On the other hand, Amy Beedle arrived this past January to Pere Roca-Cusachs’ laboratory. In the Garcia-Manyes lab Amy was looking at how mechanical forces can trigger conformational changes in individual proteins. Here at IBEC, she wants to incorporate the results at the single molecule level with the cellular level, to try to understand how individual bonds and proteins can contribute to cellular mechanosensing. “My aim is to expand my expertise in single molecule force spectroscopy to a larger cellular context” adds Amy.
This is the first time that both UPC and KCL teams meet with IBEC to share skills and ideas within the project’s framework.
