English Seminars
Crafting “function" from “form” by regulating cell proliferation
and organizing the cytoskeleton in the making of the eye lens
| Title | Crafting “function" from “form” by regulating cell proliferation and organizing the cytoskeleton in the making of the eye lens |
| Lecturer | Professor Roy Quinlan School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Durham, UK Chair Elect for GRC on Intermediate Filaments |
| Language | English |
| Date&Time | 09/23/2016 (Fri) 11：00～12：00 |
| Venue | Large Seminar Room |
| Detail | The eye lens is a deceptively simple tissue, but it is a prime example of the D’Arcy Thompson principle that "Form and Function" are linked. Our research addresses fundamental questions such as how do cells know their relative position in a tissue? What emergent properties are important for tissue formation? We believe that at least part of the answer to these questions lies in the lens epithelium. It is here that the iconic hexagonal shape of the lens fibre cells is established and the consequential spatial order established. During development this is easy to rationalize as the lens increases layer by layer onto a preformed template, but what happens when the lens regenerates? What determines the organization of the lens fibre cells in that scenario? We have built an interdisciplinary research team (John Girkin, Chris Saunter (Physics), Junjie Wu and Boguslaw Obara (SECS) with skills needed to study cell dynamics in the living zebrafish and in regenerating rat lenses. We have produced a mathematical model for the lens epithelium and we hope eventually to have a finite element model for lens accommodation. Along the way, we are studying the role of the intermediate filament cytoskeleton and their associated protein chaperones in maintaining lens optical functions, their effects upon cell shape and how aging and disease affect their respective functions. The eye lens is a system that illuminates all the major key biological questions on ageing, cancer prevention, apoptosis as well as protein longevity. In this presentation, I shall use selected examples from the lens research portfolio to illustrate how form and function are linked in the lens. |
| Contact | 分子医学細胞生物学 末次志郎 (suetsugu@bs.naist.jp) |