Internships Fabrication and mechanical characterization of biomimetic living cells

In this project you will create mimics of animal cells by enclosing biopolymer networks in membranous containers, and you will develop methods of network-membrane coupling using gene recombinant DNA techniques.

Research / Job description
Living cells, the basic units of life, are soft materials able to perform complex vital functions. Key to the emergence of biological functionality are the proper molecular organization and accompanying mechanical properties of cells, the physical understanding of which is just at its beginning. Biomimetic approaches, where the complex cell is rebuilt in a simplified manner, are a promising way towards understanding the physical processes giving rise to cellular function.

The objective of this project is the fabrication and mechanical characterization of biopolymer-filled membranous containers (liposomes) as model systems of living cells. You will optimize fabrication methods which were recently developed at the AMOLF institute and in particular establish new methods for the controlled chemical coupling of actin filaments to the inner liposome wall. This is to create a biomimetic analogue of the cell cortex, a thin dense network which lines the interior of the cell and chiefly determines cell mechanical response. You will use different biomolecular approaches to recruit genetically modified proteins of the ALCAM and Moesin families to the membrane and to test chemical coupling to actin. You will use video microscopy to measure the bending rigidity of the membranes and thus examine the impact of network-membrane coupling on the mechanical properties of the artificial cell constructs.

This internship will take place in a particularly interdisciplinary and international environment which offers the unique possibility of working on the interface between physics and biology.

About the group Biological Soft Matter

Required qualifications
You participate in a Bachelor or a Master study in physics, chemistry or biology. You have a nationality of an EU-member state or if not, you are a student at a Netherlands University. You must be available for at least 3 months (Bachelor project) / 6 months (Master project).

Terms of traineeship
In the beginning of your placement, along with your supervisor at AMOLF, you will make a step-by-step plan in which working conditions and supervision will be agreed on. If the training period is to last longer than two months, an agreement will also be established in which things like compensation will be fixed.

For further information please contact:
Prof.dr. Gijsje Koenderink
Group leader Biological Soft Matter
E-mail: gkoenderinkATamolf.nl
Phone: +31 (0)20-754 7100

Applications can besent to:
FOM Institute AMOLF
P&O dept.
Postbus 41883
1009 DB  Amsterdam
The Netherlands
E-mail: trainee.applicantATamolf.nl
Please quote vacancy # 12011.37

Please annex your:
-  Resume;
-  List of courses followed so far, and grades obtained.

Figure: Experimental concept of the biomimetic reconstitution of a living cell. Center: Fluorescence micrograph of a sample actin-filled liposome.