Academics Research Our Dept Resources Academics Undergraduate Programs Graduate Programs Course Descriptions Mission and Objectives Research Department Faculty & Staff Graduate Students Open Faculty Positions News & Announcements Events Resources Webmail Career Services Engineering Student Services Intranet Home > Our Department > All Events > The Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Focal Adhesion Dynamics    The Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Focal Adhesion Dynamics   By Professor Krishna Garikipati University of Michigan Mechanical Engineering and Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics   Thu, Feb 5, 2009 2:30 PM   Location: Cupples II, Room 100   The free energy that drives growth, resorption and sliding of focal adhesions includes mechanical and chemical contributions.  We have identified a competition among four effects that control focal adhesion dynamics: (1) work done during addition of complexes, (2) the chemical  potential inherent to focal adhesions, (3) the elastic free energy associated with deformation of focal adhesions, and (4) work done on a molecular conformational change.  A theoretical treatment of focal adhesion dynamics developed in the framework of kinetic processes driven by out of equilibrium thermodynamic forces demonstrates that the mechanisms governed by these four effects allow focal adhesions to exhibit a rich variety of behavior without the need to introduce special constitutive assumptions. In this treatment, the structural unit of focal adhesions is a complex consisting of a ligand such as fibronectin, an integrin molecule, and associated plaque proteins. The binding and unbinding of these complexes causes focal adhesion growth and resorption, respectively. The reaction-limited case is considered.  Our central findings are that growth, resorption and sliding are all predicted by a very simple chemo-mechanical model. Sliding requires symmetry breaking and is achieved via (1) above; (4) promotes symmetric growth, and (2) and (3) cause symmetric desorption.     Mechanical, Aerospace & Structural Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis One Brookings Drive, Box 1185, St. Louis, Missouri 63130 Office Location: 305 Jolley Hall, Phone: (314) 935-6047, Fax: (314) 935-4014   Home |  Academics | Research | Department | Resources © 2009 | Did you find it?