Serwane Group
Mechanobiology - Neuronal Networks
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Our team integrates concepts of physics and biology to develop a model system for a retinal neuronal network.
The high accessibility and tunability of our in vitro system will allow us to address fundamental questions at the interface between physics and biology:
- What are the mechanical cues that guide the self-organization of retina tissues?
- How are light-induced neuronal signals processed within these tissues?
- Can we use these systems as powerful in vitro disease models?
To address these questions we join forces with the Soft Condensed Matter Group at the Department of Physics at LMU and the Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy). In addition, we are collaborating with the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg.
To illuminate the role of mechanics, we will use ferrofluid droplets as mechanical actuators, a technique which has been developed by us (Serwane et al., Nature Methods, 2017) and has been used to understand the role of mechanics in 3D developing tissues (Mongera et al., Nature 2018).
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Group members
| Name | Position |
|---|---|
| Brinkop, Achim | PhD Student |
| Rogler, Teresa | PhD Student |
| Serwane, Friedhelm | Chair of Experimental Physics - Soft Condensed Matter |
| Shelton, Elijah | Postdoc |
| Frischmann, Michael | PhD Student |