The Schur group acknowledges funding by European Union via an ERC Starting Grant for our project ActinID (ERC, ActinID, 101076260).
Specifically, the goal of ActinID is to advance in situ structural biology to generate a molecular atlas of the actin cytoskeleton proteome in migratory cell protrusions. Our overarching aims are to:
1) Develop: cryo-electron tomography workflows to achieve 3D imaging of entire actin networks in cellular protrusions at single-filament resolution, combined with detailed quantitative analysis. This will provide the ground truth on how dynamic filament geometries steer directional cell movement.
2) Solve: F-actin/Actin-binding protein (ABP) structures and describe ABP quantity, ABP distribution and spatial correlation with their potential partners, to reveal how actin filament identities are regulated in an entire system.
3) Study: the reciprocal regulation of ABP activity, filament geometry and biochemistry via (genetic) manipulation of ABPs using integrative cell and structural biology experiments, and relate this to cell migration characteristics.