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Published on: March 22, 2018
A Mechanogenetic Toolkit for Interrogating Cell Signaling in Space and Time
Daeha Seo1, Kaden M Southard2, Ji-Wook Kim3
1Department of Otolaryngology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA; Department of Chemistry and Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute, University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Researchers developed magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles to image and control cellular mechanical signaling. This tool precisely activates mechanogenetic pathways, revealing how forces and spatial cues direct cell signaling dynamics for Notch and E-cadherin.
Area of Science:
- Cellular mechanobiology and signaling
- Nanotechnology applications in cell biology
Background:
- Imaging and perturbing mechanical signaling pathways with high spatiotemporal resolution is challenging.
- Mechanogenetic toolkit development is hindered by localized, time-dependent, and mechanically dependent processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel tool for precise spatiotemporal control and imaging of mechanogenetic pathways.
- To investigate the cooperative roles of spatial segregation and mechanical force in receptor activation dynamics.
Main Methods:
- Synthesis of magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles for targeted protein imaging and mechanical loading.
- Application of the tool to study cell-surface activation of Notch and E-cadherin mechanoreceptors.
- Single-molecule and single-cell analysis of cellular responses to varied spatial, chemical, temporal, and mechanical inputs.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated the utility of magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles for precise mechanical stimulation and imaging.
- Revealed how spatial segregation and mechanical force interplay to regulate receptor activation dynamics.
- Provided insights into the activation dynamics of Notch and E-cadherin at single-molecule and single-cell levels.
Conclusions:
- Magnetoplasmonic nanoparticles offer a generalizable technique for controlling and understanding mechanosensitive processes.
- The developed tool enables high spatiotemporal resolution investigation of cell signaling pathways.
- This approach advances the study of mechanobiology and its role in diverse cellular functions.
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