Research Group DE ROOIJ

Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research
Contact: Dr. Johan de Rooij
E-mail: j.derooij@hubrecht.eu
Website: http://www.hubrecht.eu/research/derooij/index.html

General research focus: Dynamics of cell adhesion

The focus in our lab is the regulation of cell-cell adhesion. We use high-resolution live-cell imaging and biochemical techniques to investigate how cell-cell adhesion receptors
(E-cadherin, Claudin, Nectin) are coupled to the actin cytoskeleton. We study how this linkage is organized to establish proper de-novo cell-cell adhesion and how this linkage is affected to regulate remodeling of cell-cell adhesion during processes that underlie HGF-induced metastasis and neo-angiogenesis. In each of these processes, forces generated by contractility in the cytoskeleton play an important role. Thus, ultimately, we wish to understand how the protein complexes that form the link between cell-cell junctions and actin can sense changes in force and orchestrate a cellular response.

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