Lombardo and Warshaw: GPS for Cell “Highways”? 3D Model System Illustrates How Molecular Motors Navigate

Andrew Lombardo and David Warshaw are featured in the LCOM Medical Communications website (06-27-02017) .

GPS for Cell “Highways”? 3D Model System Illustrates How Molecular Motors Navigate

In cells, cargo that contains tiny packages of critical biological material, such as insulin, are transported by teams of minuscule myosin molecular “motors” along complex actin filament “highways.” How these motors reach their destination when confronted with numerous intersections without GPS is a mystery. In a new study published in Nature Communications, University of Vermont researchers built three-dimensional (3D) actin highways with intersections as well as under- and over-passes within microfluidic chambers to emulate the complicated highways that myosin motors see in cells.