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Multiscale Models - How Spatial Organization of Cellular Components Influences Signaling
Contents
Contact Information
Principal Investigator/Contact
Teresa L. Head-Gordon
University of California, Berkeley
Phone: (510) 486-7365
Fax: (510) 486-6488
Email: tlhead-gordon@lbl.gov
Co-PIs and Collaborators
Arup Chakraborty
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Michael Dustin
Skirball Institute, New York University
Adam Arkin
University of California, Berkeley
George Oster
University of California, Berkeley
Phillip Geissler
University of California, Berkeley
Grant Number - 1-R01-GM-07673-01
Funding Agency
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH-NIGMS)
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Research Emphasis
T cell activation underlies the adaptive immune response, and an understanding of how this is regulated has many potential benefits including production of better vaccines and treatment of autoimmune diseases.
Recently, it has been demonstrated that spatial organization of membrane-associated molecules and intracellular signaling components plays a role in regulating T cell signaling. T-cell activation is an emergent property that results from collective dynamics involving interactions between multiple components. This inherent cooperativity and the complex spatial organization that can regulate the collective dynamics make it difficult to intuit mechanistic insights from experimental data alone. Progress requires mathematical models that integrate phenomena ranging from molecular size and time scales to cellular scales.
This project proposes to address how spatial organization of cellular components influences T cell response to external stimuli.
T cell is a type of white blood cell that is of key importance to the immune system and is at the core of adaptive immunity, the system that tailors the body's immune response to specific pathogens.
Abstract
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Scales Examined
Time Scales
- Nanosecond and below (ns)
- Microsecond (μs)
- Millisecond (ms)
- Second (s)
- Minutes
- Hours
- Days
Biological Scales
- Molecular
- Molecular Complexes
- Sub-Cellular
- Cellular
- Multi-Cellular Systems
- Tissue
Length Scales
- Nanometer and below (nm)
- Micrometer (μm)
- Millimeter (mm)
- Centimeter (cm)
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Biomedical, Biological and Behavioral (BBB) Areas
Biomedical impact: protein-protein interactions, cytoskeletal dynamics, cell signaling dynamics, cell migration, T cell biology, the immune response and autoimmunity.
Modeling Methods and Tools (MMT)Areas
Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, Langevin/Brownian dynamics, particle methods, coarse-grained models, field theoretic techniques, worm-like chain, and discrete-continuous dynamical models.
Software Development
Languages and Tools
C++, python, CVS, open MP, compiled and run on everything from Linux, C++ workstations and clusters to HPC platforms.
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