PhD Thesis in Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry
 

Quantitative Model of Interactions between Hematopoietic Stem Cells and their Niche

Physical Chemistry of Biosystems, Univ. Heidelberg (Prof. M. Tanaka)
Internal Medicine V, Univ. Heidelberg (Prof. Anthony Ho)

This project is an interdisciplinary challenge of a stem cell medicine group (Ho Lab) and a biophysics group (Tanaka Lab) within the framework of a new Cooperative Research Center Project (SFB 873).

The primary goal of the project is to determine the interaction between hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and their niche, in particular, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). Planar lipid membranes displaying functional moieties (e.g. cadherin) at a precisely controlled density (nm accuracy) can be used as the MSC surface to evaluate the significance of specific molecular pairs in cell-cell interaction. The strength of cell adhesion will be quantified using the shockwave generated by a picosecond laser pulse, which is a new technical platform developed by our group.

We seek for an applicant who is motivated to participate to such an interdisciplinary project.

If you have interests, please contact:

Prof. Motomu Tanaka (Tanaka_at_uni-heidelberg.de)
Prof. Anthony D. Ho (anthony_dick.ho_at_urz.uni-heidelberg.de)

References
M. Tanaka and E. Sackmann, Nature, 437, 656 (2005)
A. Burk, et al. "Quantifying adhesion mechanisms and dynamics of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells." Scientific reports 5 (2015): 9370.
C. Monzel, et al. "Dynamic cellular phenotyping defines specific mobilization mechanisms of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells induced by SDF1a versus synthetic agents." Scientific reports 8.1 (2018): 1841.
T. Ohta, et al. "Simple physical model unravels influences of chemokine on shape deformation and migration of human hematopoietic stem cells." Scientific reports 8.1 (2018): 10630.