Title: Developing a multiscale understanding of energy-utilizing polymers

Holly Goodson, Professor and Associate Chair

Holly Goodson Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame chemistry.nd.edu

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Department of Biological Sciences

University of Notre Dame

Abstract:
Microtubules are energy-utilizing polymers that serve as essential components of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton, enabling cells to divide, segregate their chromosomes, and organize themselves internally. Microtubule filaments display a puzzling behavior known as dynamic instability, in which they undergo distinct phases of growing and shortening, with approximately random transitions in between. Our lab and its collaborators integrate experiments, simulations and mathematical modeling to build a multi-scale and predictive understanding of microtubule dynamics.  In this EMBRIO seminar, I will discuss our efforts to use machine-learning to objectively quantify and characterize MT dynamics, our application of this software to dissect the mechanism of a MT binding protein, and some “big picture” biological conclusions drawn from analysis of emergent population-level behaviors exhibited by our dimer-scale, agent-based simulations of microtubule assembly.