Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Hydrodynamics of Double Membrane Spreading in Biology

Objective

Eukaryotic cells exist in highly dynamic environments and are subject to a variety of existential threats, ranging from viruses to pathological defects in their own genome. To cope with these challenges, cells have developed a conserved pathway in order to degrade harmful objects internal to the cell. This process is know as autophagy.

Autophagy involves the formation of a double lipid membrane compartment that wraps around harmful targets, such as damaged organelles, protein aggregates or lipid droplets in order to facilitate their degradation. Although the genetic and molecular triggers for autophagy have been analysed in much detail, the biophysical principles governing such a dynamic process have received remarkably little attention. The biophysics of autophagy is highly complex biophysical process, involving the driven, non-equilibrium morphodynamics of a fluid membrane that must wrap its target. This incorporates molecular signalling and adhesion, vesicular trafficking and active force generation and complex flows of the lipid membrane in curved geometries as well as the Stokesian hydrodynamics of the embedding fluid. This makes the dynamics of autophagy essentially a problem of active soft matter physics.

In HYDROBIOMEM I will build on demonstrable expertise in active soft matter physics, morphology and fluid dynamics to develop novel theoretical and computational models to give mechanistic understanding and predictions of the dynamics of double membrane wrapping in autophagy. I will apply these tools, in close collaboration with experimentalists, to test existing biological hypotheses and give new insight into this ubiquitous process in cell biology.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Net EU contribution
€ 210 911,04
Address
PROBLEMVEIEN 5-7
0313 Oslo
Norway
Region
Norge Oslo og Viken Oslo
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data