About the project
In this project we will now focus on adding cellular crowding to our growing membrane system by introducing specific condensates.
First, we will assess the influence of, for example, membrane charge, expansion and packing, on the stability of the condensate-vesicle complex, while the membrane is expanding, which will advance our general understanding. Secondly, we plan to introduce membrane remodelling through environmental stimuli, thereby creating an advanced synthetic mimic of a native cellular membrane.
This project will include secondments at the University of Leuven (KU) in Belgium (Casadevall i Solvas group), the University of Nijmegen (RU) in the Netherlands (Spruijt group), and the Berlin branch of Nature Communications.
Selected References
- Exterkate, M.; Driessen, A. J. M. Continuous Expansion of a Synthetic Minimal Cellular Membrane. Emerg. Top. Life Sci. 2019, ETLS20190020. https://doi.org/10.1042/etls20190020.
- Exterkate, M.; Caforio, A.; Stuart, M. C. A.; Driessen, A. J. M. Growing Membranes in Vitro by Continuous Phospholipid Biosynthesis from Free Fatty Acids. ACS Synth. Biol. 2018, 7 (1), 153–165. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.7b00265.
- Bailoni, E.; Patiño-Ruiz, M. F.; Stan, A. R.; Schuurman-Wolters, G. K.; Exterkate, M.; Driessen, A. J. M.; Poolman, B. Synthetic Vesicles for Sustainable Energy Recycling and Delivery of Building Blocks for Lipid Biosynthesis(†). ACS Synth. Biol. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.4c00073.
Doctoral Candidate: Marco Lupacchini
Marco obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences at the Università Politecnica delle Marche (Italy), where he built a solid foundation in biological sciences. He then completed his Master’s degree at the Università degli Studi di Pavia, focusing on elucidating the interaction between human LRRTM4 and GPC5 within the synaptic cleft of the central nervous system.
During his training, he carried out an internship in the Membrane Enzymology group at the University of Groningen, within the BaSyC (Building a Synthetic Cell) research programme, where he gained hands-on experience working with membrane proteins.
Hosted by:
Marten Exterkate
Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany
Institute of Biochemistry
Membrane Biogenesis and Lipidomics Group
