Description:

Zoom Info:

https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/97690409413?pwd=6915p1NapeQzSXkIauMvcETsKocbGR.1     
Meeting ID: 976 9040 9413
Passcode: 858612

We are happy to host Lara Koehler at the NITMB on Monday September 15. 
Lara is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden. She will be giving a talk at 11am in the new auditorium on the 35th floor of the Hancock building.
Please find the details about her talk and her bio below. 

Talk title: Cytoskeletal Oscillations Drive Large-Scale Flows and Nuclear Organization in Early Embryonic Systems

Abstract: Synchronization drives early embryonic development, enabling simultaneous cell divisions and the spatial organization of nuclei within the embryo. In organisms such as Xenopus, Drosophila, and zebrafish, mitotic waves coordinate cell cycles across distances that exceed diffusion limits, guided by a chemical oscillator. At the same time, global cytoplasmic flows in these syncytial tissues contribute to the large-scale self-organization of nuclei, yet the coupling between biochemical signaling and cytoskeletal mechanics that underlies these directed flows remains poorly understood. Here, we relax the geometric constraints of the embryo and investigate nuclear dynamics in Xenopus egg extracts and complementary simulations. We show that the periodic polymerization and depolymerization of microtubule asters are sufficient to generate robust large-scale directed flows, even though the asters are intrinsically isotropic. Furthermore, we demonstrate that cell division stabilizes short-range order in a global synchronized system. Together, these findings reveal a minimal physical mechanism by which cytoskeletal dynamics and biochemical oscillations jointly organize flows and patterns, with implications for understanding the emergent principles that shape early development across species. 

About the speaker: Lara is a post-doctoral researcher in theoretical biophysiscs. She did her PhD on the equilibrium self-assembly of particles with complex interactions, working with Martin Lenz and Pierre Ronceray in Paris. She then moved to Dresden for her post-doc, where she is studying the mechanisms of cystoplasm self-organization, working with Jan Brugués and Frank Jülicher. 

Date and time: Monday, September 15, 11am 

Where: auditorium, 35th floor, Hancock building. To access the building without a badge, please check https://www.nitmb.org/visit.