LC Seminar- Heidi Klumpe

Heidi Klumpe

Thursday, January 9th 2025 

@ 3:00 PM

“Protein parts to multicellular function: quantitative and synthetic biology approaches to study developmental signaling and microbial aggregation”

The evolution of multicellular life coincided with an increased number of components for many core, cellular processes. Rebuilding these systems from the bottom-up can reveal their “design principles,” or how various components collectively support higher-level functions. This talk will cover two examples of this approach. First, many cell-cell signaling pathways regulate diverse developmental processes via a set of surprisingly similar proteins. Comprehensively measuring the combinatorial and context-dependent activity of one such family of proteins (Bone Morphogenetic Proteins, or BMPs) provided a functional classification that could explain their tissue-specific activities. Second, bringing cells together into multicellular aggregates can have profound effects on fitness and function, but these vary with attachment mechanism. Adhesion proteins, which produce reversible and flexible connections, produced larger yeast aggregates with fewer effects on growth rate than more rigid cell-cell bonds. Preliminary data suggest that this decreased fitness cost is due to reduced diffusion limitations that similarly reduce the protective effects of aggregation. Together, these projects highlight how identifying design principles increases our understanding of existing multicellularity and can guide the design of synthetic aggregates.

Location: Laufer Center Lecture Hall 101