丁香园AV

Areas of interest

Mechanobiology and Morphodynamics of Immune Cells
Fighting against infections and cancers is a physical task. Many steps of the immune responses require force generation by leukocytes: recruitment to the sites of inflammation, killing by phagocytosis or degranulation, migration to and from secondary lymphoid organs, antigen discrimination. Moreover, immune cell responses are largely affected by the mechanical properties of their tissue environment. Our lab works at the interface of immunology, cell biology, biophysics and microbiology. We are studying how immune cells generate and sense mechanical forces using quantitative approaches based on high-resolution live cell microscopy. We are particularly interested in molecular dynamics involved in plasma membrane-cytoskeleton interactions and how they impact immune functions of professional phagocytes.