Professor in Cell biology since 2005. Fields of expertise: cell adhesion receptors, integrins, actin cytoskelton, cellular signaling, protein kinases. Teaches cell biology, molecular biology, physiology and structural biology.
It has been recently discovered that cells sense the mechanical properties of their surroundings in order to form three-dimensional tissues. This mechano-signaling includes actin cytoskeleton-linked force sensors that trigger further signaling events. My group has identified the structural mechanism how the actin crosslinking protein filamin can act as a force sensor by exposing cryptic binding sites. Using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism we have now for the first time shown that the force sensor structure in filamin is essential for morphogenetic processes during oogenesis. Our current focus is to characterize the mechanically regulated signalling pathways downstream of filamin.The study is expected to be relevant for the understanding of tissue development in general and the diseases associated with rare human filamin mutations.
