Cells are constantly organizing thousands if not millions of biomolecules into nanoscale architectures in order to facilitate diverse cellular functions. However, current understanding on all of such tiny yet dynamic architectures is far from complete. It is largely due to the technical challenges in precisely mimicking and manipulating nanoscale organization of biomolecules and cellular structures.
To meet such challenges, our lab takes advantages of the state-of-the-art nanofabrication technologies to develop new tools in engineering nano- to micro-scale biophysical properties of subcellular components, and study how their alterations correlated with different physiological and pathological conditions. In particular, we target to manipulate the nanoscale deformation / curvatures on (1) plasma membrane and (2) nuclear envelop to study cancer, aging, and infectious diseases.
1. Nanochip designs for high-precision guidance of subcellular deformations
Santoro, F., et. al. 2017, ACS Nano
Li. X., et. al. 2019, Nat. Protoc.
2. Engineered membrane deformation and guided reorganization of cellular machinery
Lou, H.Y.,* Zhao W,* et. al., 2018, Acc. Chem. Res.
(1) Examples of plasma membrane curvature-guided assembly of various proteins on nanochips
Endocytic Protein
Adhesion Protein
Cytoskeleton Protein
Viral Protein
Zhao W, et. al., 2017, Nature Nano.
Lou, H.Y.,* Zhao W,* et. al., 2019, PNAS.
(2) Examples of nanochip-induced nuclear envelop deformation in cells
Hanson, L., et. al., 2017, Nature Nano.