Event
Bioengineering Seminar Series: Bruce Vogel
Friday, April 29, 2011
11:00 a.m.
Room 1200, Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building
Professor Sameer Shah
sameer@umd.edu
Hemicentins: Ancient structural proteins with novel functions
Bruce Vogel
Assistant Professor
Center for Biomedical Engineering and Technology
University of Maryland, Baltimore
The extracellular matrix (ECM) is an organized meshwork of glycoproteins and proteoglycans that provides a structural context and regulatory signals required for tissue histogenesis and homeostasis. Using C. elegans as a model organism, we have identified a large, highly conserved ECM protein, hemicentin, that assembles into elastic fiber-like polymers at multiple cell junctions where it anchors multiple cell types to the epidermis, promotes cell migration and cell division.
We will present our work on hemicentin function, assembly, interactions with other ECM components and a novel role for this ancient protein in embryonic and post-embryonic vertebrate development.
