Active Molecular Systems

RA3 objective is to elucidate collective spatiotemporal behaviors of active molecular systems, and to reveal the principles by which active molecular assemblies give rise to dynamic intracellular processes. We aim to obtain a general understanding of the principles by which collectives of active molecules generate intracellular dynamics. How are small molecular changes amplified to cause large-scale events? How does bidirectional transport on cytoskeletal filaments arise from collective molecular processes? What are the collective dynamic behaviors of active intracellular systems that use polymer collapse for force generaion? How do molecular components organize mesoscale cytoskeletal structures like the mitotic spindle and the actomyosin cortex? How does the response of active molecular systems to external forces emerge from the dynamics of their molecular components? How do the dynamics of active molecular systems relate to their supramolecular structure? By combining in vivo and in vitro high-resolution imaging and force manipulation techniques with statistical physics approaches we will close the gap between molecular properties and dynamic mesoscale behaviors in biological processes.