ERC Advanced Grant · 2022
Engineering synthetic mechanotransduction through nucleocytoplasmic transport
Our understanding of cell biology has reached the point in which cells can be exogenously engineered to carry out specific tasks. This is typically applied to generate gene circuits that respond to biochemical interactions between specific molecules. However, cells sense not only biochemical but also mechanical signals, in the process of mechanotransduction. Here, we propose to re-engineer cell mechanotransduction from scratch, in a manner that is not based on any endogenous cell signalling pathway. We will achieve this by harnessing our novel findings that force application to the cell nucleus regulates transport through nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), in such a way that proteins can be…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.