Biomechanical Role of Epsin in Influenza A Virus Entry.

Influenza A virus (IAV) utilizes clathrin-mediated endocytosis for cellular entry. Membrane-bending protein epsin is a cargo-specific adaptor for IAV entry. Epsin interacts with ubiquitinated surface receptors bound to IAVs via its ubiquitin interacting motifs (UIMs).

Complimentary action of structured and unstructured domains of epsin supports clathrin-mediated endocytosis at high tension.

Membrane tension plays an inhibitory role in clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) by impeding the transition of flat plasma membrane to hemispherical clathrin-coated structures (CCSs). Membrane tension also impedes the transition of hemispherical domes to omega-shaped CCSs. However, CME is not completely halted in cells under high tension conditions.

Mechanical Regulation of Endocytosis: New Insights and Recent Advances.

Endocytosis is a mechanosensitive process. It involves remodeling of the plasma membrane from a flat shape to a budded morphology, often at the sub-micrometer scale. This remodeling process is energy-intensive and is influenced by mechanical factors such as membrane tension, membrane rigidity, and physical properties of cargo and extracellular surroundings.

The Machado-Joseph disease-associated form of ataxin-3 impacts dynamics of clathrin-coated pits.

Expansion above a certain threshold in the polyglutamine (polyQ) tract of ataxin-3 is the main cause of neurodegeneration in Machado-Joseph disease. Ataxin-3 contains an N-terminal catalytic domain, called Josephin domain, and a highly aggregation-prone C-terminal domain containing the polyQ tract. Recent work has shown that protein aggregation inhibits clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME).

Centrifugal microfluidics for sorting immune cells from whole blood.

Sorting and enumeration of immune cells from blood are critical operations involved in many clinical applications. Conventional methods for sorting and counting immune cells from blood, such as flow cytometry and hemocytometers, are tedious, inaccurate, and difficult for implementation for point-of-care (POC) testing. Herein we developed a microscale centrifugal technology termed Centrifugal Microfluidic Chip (CMC) capable of sorting immune cells from blood and cellular analysis in a laboratory setting.

Integrated quantification based on confocal imaging: cell crowding modulates heterogeneity in GPCR-mediated calcium oscillation.

Results from single cell imaging, facilitated by high resolution microscopy, have demonstrated cell-to-cell variability within the same cell population in contexts ranging from cell growth to cell migration. Recent studies suggest that such variability conveys important information about diseased states. However, manual analysis and interpretation of heterogeneous calcium oscillation based on time-lapsed images, as practiced today, is tedious, and essentially infeasible for large datasets.