CDB Seminar - Professor Robert Insall

Talk abstract: Chemotaxis – directing cells using gradients of diffusible molecules - is a central part of cell behaviour in development, healthy adult life, and also involved in numerous disease states.  Most chemotaxis studies examine how cells interpret gradients passively, reading cues that are imposed from outside. We are more interested in self-generated gradients, in which cells create their own gradients while migrating up them, creating their own steering cues.  We find that self-generated gradients establish information-rich scenarios that can be very counterintuitive and require detailed mathematical modelling to be understood.  They give exceptionally satisfying results, however, in particular the ability to detect features of the environment at a distance and thus to solve complex mazes. We find them in a growing range of cell types; I will introduce a few. Some self-generated gradients repel cells rather than attracting them; this is also unexpectedly difficult to explain, but has led us to study interactions between multiple chemoattractants detected by the same receptors.  These interactions allow cells to use simple rules to create complex and unexpected patterns of migration, just like those seen in embryonic development.

Suggested references: 

Tweedy et al., Science 2020 369:eaay9792. 'Seeing around corners: Cells solve mazes and respond at a distance using attractant breakdown.'

Host: Roberto Mayor

Join Zoom Meeting: 

https://ucl.zoom.us/j/96794274549

Meeting ID: 967 9427 4549