191012 Coupling Cell-Cell Adhesion to Cell Polarization

Title:
Coupling Cell-Cell Adhesion to Cell Polarization

Speaker:
王成禾 (Chen-Ho Wang), PhD student, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG)

Time:
10/12 (Sat.) 11 am PDT, 12 pm MDT, 1 pm CDT, 2 pm EDT
10/13 (Sun.) 2 am Taiwan

Keywords:
Biology, Biophysics, Cell polarization, Reaction diffusion, Cell-cell adhesion, Live-cell imaging

Abstract:

Cell polarization is an essential process which is key to morphology and function of tissues. Cells in tissue polarize and align their polarization axis to create functional, tissue specific architecture. A prominent example is the organization of epithelial tissues. Here, single cells polarize into three distinct cell membrane domains: apical (free surface), lateral (cell-cell contact) and basal (cell-matrix contact). Adhesion contacts of cell-cell versus cell-matrix interface are the most obvious external cues to align polarization axis of single cells such that apical domains are forming a single closed surface or cavity. Much is still unknown about the role of cell-cell contact interface with its homophilic adhesion receptors. Even less is known about the feedback and interplay of basal and lateral domains and how this is connected to apical-basal polarization of epithelial cells.

In this research, we combine two approaches: 1) a minimal organ approach which comprising of MDCK doublets cultured in array of microcavities to precisely control the spatial organization of cellular adhesions in three dimensions, 2) To provide a minimum model of cell polarization in epithelium, computational simulation will be involved for examining sufficiency of the model.