Molecular Microscopy of Membranes (MMM)

How the components of cell membranes, lipids, transmembrane proteins, and bound cytoskeleton proteins, are organized and how the interplay between their molecular 3D architecture and the surrounding membrane affects their function? Our Team addresses these general questions in the context of cell division, cell detoxification and inter-organelles communication. We combine cryo-electron microscopy, single particle analysis, cryo-tomography and novel in vitro membrane systems to decipher the architectures of both proteins and membrane. We integrate our results with data derived from functional analysis, physics of membranes and cell biology to unravel mechanisms at different spatial and temporal scales.

From left to right: Energized transport of drugs by an ABC transporter reconstituted in GUV (Dezi et al., PNAS 2013). Cryo-EM of Myosin 1b specifically bound to Pip2 vesicle (Yamada et al., Nat Comm. 2014). Cryo-tomography of septin filaments polymerized on Pip2 vesicles. 3D reconstruction of an ABC transporter embedded in a lipid bilayer (Fribourg, J.Mol. Biol. 2014)