University of Cambridge > Talks.cam > Physics of Living Matter PLM6 > Reaction diffusion and collective behavior in the self-organisation of the mitotic spindle

  Browse A-Z

Log in

Cambridge users (raven)details Other usersdetails No account?details

Information on

Subscribing to talksdetails Finding a talkdetails Adding a talkdetails Disseminating talksdetails Help and Documentationdetails

Reaction diffusion and collective behavior in the self-organisation of the mitotic spindle

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Duncan Simpson.

The Activity of Living Matter

Self-organisation processes lead to the generation of dynamic patterns that often acquire new properties impossible to predict in a linear way from the individual characteristics of the parts. Moreover such processes occur at various scales, from the atomic/ molecular level to societies and even stellar systems. I have been trying to understand how the mitotic spindle of animal cells, which is involved in the segregation of chromosomes during mitosis, becomes organised in a perfect bipolar structure. In one given cell type, the spindle has an amasingly reproducible shape and size. Yet its components turn-over in a few minutes at the expense of a large amount of chemical energy dissipation. So, the structure is a steady-state dissipative structure. The challenge was to identify the nature of the principles underlying specifically the self-organisation of the tubes that constitute the spindle, the microtubules, into an antiparallel, bipolar array, centered on the chromosomes. We have shown that this happens through the formation of a gradient of regulatory molecules around the chromosomes, that provides spatial cues for the collective behavior of microtubules and molecular motors that eventually self-organize into a steady-state bipolar anti-parallel array.

This talk is part of the Physics of Living Matter PLM6 series.

Tell a friend about this talk:

This talk is included in these lists:

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.

Other lists

Plant Sciences 'ABC' Seminars CUiD - Cambridge University International Development Society Stem Cell

Other talks

Validation & testing of novel therapeutic targets to treat osteosarcoma Yikes! Why did past-me say he'd give a talk on future discounting? Information Theory, Codes, and Compression Saving the People of the Forest: one chocolate bar and one nebulizer treatment at a time Behavioural phenotypes of children born preterm: what we know and future research avenues The Anne McLaren Lecture: CRISPR-Cas Gene Editing: Biology, Technology and Ethics PTPmesh: Data Center Network Latency Measurements Using PTP Graded linearisations for linear algebraic group actions Graph Legendrians and SL2 local systems Protein Folding, Evolution and Interactions Symposium Making a Crowdsourced Task Attractive: Measuring Workers Pre-task Interactions
 

© 2006-2024 Talks.cam, University of Cambridge. Contact Us | Help and Documentation | Privacy and Publicity