Protein Dynamics group uses state of art experimental and computational methods to elucidate the relations between protein conformation and function

Latest publication

The mechanical cell

All regions of the cell are connected via mechanical linkages, enabling the whole cell to function as a mechanical system. In this review, we define some of the key concepts of how this machinery functions, highlighting the critical requirement for mechanosensory proteins, and conceptualise the coupling of mechanical linkages to mechanochemical switches that enables forces to be converted into biological signals. These mechanical couplings provide a mechanism for how mechanical crosstalk might coordinate the entire cell, its neighbours, extending into whole collections of cells, in tissues and in organs, and ultimately in the coordination and operation of entire organisms. Consequently, many diseases manifest through defects in this machinery, which we map onto schematics of the mechanical linkages within a cell.

The mechanical cell – the role of force dependencies in synchronising protein interaction networks

Benjamin T Goult, Magdaléna von Essen, Vesa P. Hytönen

J Cell Sci 2022, 135(22):jcs259769

https://doi.org/10.1242/jcs.259769