ERC Starting Grants for Gijsje Koenderink and for Jeroen van Zon
AMOLF group leaders Prof.dr. Gijsje Koenderink and Dr. Jeroen van Zon have each received an ERC Starting Grant of 1,5 million euros. This prestigious grant is intended for setting up excellent research teams or further strengthening such teams.
How cells determine their shape
Koenderink will use this grant to start a new research programme aimed at understanding the physical basis of active cell shape control. Cells need to constantly undergo precise and reproducible changes in shape in order to grow and divide. The main determinants of cell shape are the cell membrane and a contractile polymer gel right beneath it that is known as the actin cortex. Koenderinks group will combine model biomembranes and actin gels into synthetic cells that can actively change their shape like living cells. By controlling the molecular composition, it will be possible to decipher how cells generate and control the forces that determine their shape. In collaboration with developmental biologists, the biological relevance of the results will be directly tested by live-cell microscopy of fly embryos. By improving our basic understanding of cell shape regulation, this research will ultimately provide new avenues to understand how malfunctions in cell shape control contribute to cancer and developmental disorders.
Stochastic processes determine cell fate
Van Zon will use his grant to start a research programme on the role of stochastic processes in embryonic development. In a growing embryo each cell has to assume exactly the right cell fate in order to result in a healthy adult organism. Surprisingly, in many important cases cells assume their fate in a stochastic manner, picking one fate randomly from a repertoire of multiple possible fates. It has been hypothesized that these stochastic cell fate decisions are driven by small stochastic fluctuations on the molecular level, also called 'molecular noise', that are amplified by signaling networks inside the cell. Van Zon’s group will use a quantitative biophysics approach to study stochastic cell fate decisions in the small nematode worm Caenorhabiditis elegans. Using this simple multicellular organism, the researchers will analyze how stochastic cell fate decisions arise from molecular noise and how embryos can use such a fundamentally stochastic process to still generate extremely reliable outcomes.
Contact
Prof.dr. Gijsje H. Koenderink, +31 (0)20 754 71 00.
http://www.amolf.nl/research/biological-soft-matter/
http://www.amolf.nl/gijsjekoenderink
Dr. Jeroen van Zon, +31 (0)20 754 71 00.
http://www.amolf.nl/research/quantitativedevelopmentalbiology/
Personal page Jeroen van Zon