Mary Elizabeth Williams, assistant professor of chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, is giving a seminar on “Directing Patterning and Motility of Motor Proteins with Conjugated Nanoparticles.” It will be held on Friday, February 24, in the Center for Natural Sciences, room 333, at noon.
Our group is broadly interested in the development of inorganic materials that mimic the behavior of biological systems, and as a result provide molecular tools to probe and manipulate them. For example, we prepare chemically functional magnetic nanoparticles to simulate magnetotactic bactera and subsequently use these to control transport of motor proteins. Kinesin motor proteins transport intracellular cargo unidirectionally along microtubule tracks. Harnessing this biological system has been proposed as a method of assembly, separation, and manipulation in nano- and micro-scale systems; however, techniques for directing microtubule or kinesin velocity (speed and direction) are conspicuously absent. Using heterofunctionalized microtubules and applied magnetic fields, we have demonstrated that magnetic nanoparticles attached to the leading segment of the microtubules enable the control the transport direction with very little effect on the observed gliding speed. These findings provide a novel tool to investigate and control kinesin microtubule organization in vitro or as a new approach to discern the roles of motors and microtubules in cellular processes such as mitosis, axonal transport and perform manipulations in reduced cellular systems.
All are welcome to attend.
