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SUMMARY:Cell crawling\, cell swimming and cell tumbling - Elsen Tjhung (Un
 iversity of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20160519T110000Z
DTEND:20160519T120000Z
UID:TALK66020@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Salvatore Tesoro
DESCRIPTION:Eukaryotic cells are made up of protein filaments (such as act
 ins) which can be polarized at the macroscopic level. These actin filament
 s can polymerize in the direction of polarization causing protrusion in th
 e cell. Furthermore\, these filaments are also crosslinked by motor protei
 ns (called myosin)\, which pull the filaments together causing contraction
 . Several eukaryotic cells employ these mechanisms for different types of 
 cellular motility such as crawling\, swimming or tumbling. Here we conside
 r a droplet of actomyosin as a minimal model for cellular motility with tw
 o active ingredients: 1) self-propulsion in the direction of polarisation 
 to represent actin polymerisation\, and 2) contractile stress to represent
  actomyosin contraction. In particular\, self-propulsion can create protru
 sion during cell crawling. Cell swimming\, on the other hand\, is due to s
 pontaneous symmetry breaking of actomyosin contraction. Finally\, we also 
 consider the effects of chirality (such as twisted actin filaments). A tum
 bling motility is a consequence of chiral symmetry breaking. Some organism
 s (e.g. Toxoplasma gondii) might employ a combination of swimming and tumb
 ling motility to give rise to a spiral trajectory.\n
LOCATION:TCM Seminar room\, 530 Mott building
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