Expérimental
Cells are able to sense small topographical features in the range 10 to few hundreds nm and to respond to them by locally assembling different types of actin-based structures. This directly influences their motility as well as the localization of podosomes in macrophages. This process potentially involves curvature-sensitive proteins from the BAR-family but why and how it eventually influences cell motility or the assembly of podosomes has to be determined. In order to understand live cells use the topography, of their environment, the objective of the internship will be to test in vitro that the BAR-domain proteins, identified in cells by our biologist colleagues (i) are effectively sensing the membrane deformations induced by the topographical features, and (ii) responsible for the assembly of actin structures. Purified proteins and model membrane systems supported by microfabricated substrates will be used together with fluorescence microscopy (TIRF and confocal microscopy). The internship can be continued with a PhD, funded by the ERC Synergy grant PhushingCell.