Mechanics and Energetics of Leukocyte Locomotion
The Ernst A. H. Friedheim Memorial Lecture
Event Details
- Type
- Friday Lecture Series
- Speaker(s)
-
Michael Sixt, M.D., professor, Institute of Science and Technology Austria
- Speaker bio(s)
-
During metazoan development, immune surveillance and cancer dissemination, cells migrate in complex three-dimensional microenvironments. These are crowded by cells and extracellular matrix, generating mazes of differently sized spaces typically smaller than the diameter of the migrating cell. Most mesenchymal and epithelial cells actively generate their migratory path using pericellular tissue proteolysis and transmit traction forces via specific adhesion receptors. On the contrary, amoeboid cells such as leukocytes employ non-destructive strategies of locomotion and do not hold on to extracellular substrates. We study how leukocytes negotiate complex environments, how the cytoskeleton executes directional choices and how energetic constraints affect cellular locomotion.
Michael Sixt studied human medicine at the University of Erlangen, Germany. After receiving the medical approbation, he worked as a clinical resident in dermatology, followed by a research-postdoc at the University of Lund, Sweden, where he investigated the functional anatomy of lymph nodes. In 2005 Dr. Sixt started his research lab at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, where he began to study cell biological foundations of leukocyte migration. In 2010 Dr. Sixt moved to the newly founded Institute of Science and Technology Austria (Klosterneuburg, near Vienna). From 2014-2024 he served as Vice President of ISTA and helped to develop its research infrastructure.
- Open to
- Tri-Institutional