Nanoscale reconstruction of mechanical systems involved in disease pathogenesis

Objectives

The project has three overall goals: 

1. understanding the lifetime of molecular machines
2. to reconstitute mechanical aspects of host-cell invasion by malaria parasites; 
3. to understand how force exerted on both the parasite and the host-cell are orchestrated, while persistently bearing the load associated to the malaria parasite moving into the host cell.

These objectives will be achieved through:

• to determine the turnover number or the enzymatic lifetime of myosin motors through gliding assay
• to design and construct 3D DNA origami scaffolds to precisely control the number of myosin VI motors
• to investigate inter-molecular mechanical forces in malaria parasite invasion through Protein Unfolding by Mechanical Actuation (PUMA) platform, which a mechanically-active DNA platform for parallel manipulation of single proteins. 
• to study the collective movement of myosin VI ensemble on two-dimensional actin network