EMBO Member
Stephan Grill
EMBO 2017 | MemC 22–25
Former EMBO Young Investigator (2011)
MPI für molekulare Zellbiologie und Genetik, Dresden, Germany
Physics of Life
We investigate the physical principles underlying the dynamic organization of the living state of matter. We combine theory and experiment and study how the actomyosin cell cortex self contracts to drive cell polarity establishment and left-right symmetry breaking in the early C. elegans nematode. At the scale of molecules we investigate force generation during vesicle tethering and fusion as well as the micro-mechanics of transcription.
Keywords
Active matter theory / actomyosin / cell polarity / left-right symmetry breaking / laser ablation / optical tweezers / single molecule biophysics