Single Cell Physiology: Optical control of protein expression and activity at the single cell level; applications to morphogenesis in zebrafish

Location: Hörsaal 2, Physik Department der TUM, James-Franck-STr. 1, 85748 Garching 

Living organisms are made of cells that are capable of responding to external signals by modifying their internal state (gene expression or protein phosphorylation patterns) and subsequently their external environment by the release of signaling molecules. In multicellular organisms in particular, cellular differentiation and signaling is essential for the development of the organism. While many of the key actors of these processes are known (morphogens in development, kinases in signal transduction) much less is known of the quantitative rules that govern their interaction with one another and with other cellular players (such as the type of complexes, rate constants, strength of feedback or feedforward loops, etc.). I will present our initial results regarding the development of means to optically control the expression and activity of proteins at the single cell level in a live organism and its use as a tool to study morphogenesis in zebrafish. The idea is to caged small soluble biomolecules which can be released locally with two-photon excitation. We can thus control the activity of proteins and the local development of the organism.