QBiOCELL

The regulation of cell mass, volume, and growth rate is crucial for life by preserving cellular development and homeostasis, while abnormal cell growth is directly associated with a pathological state. Cell mass and growth are biophysical parameters that depend on the balance between the synthesis and uptake of macromolecules and their loss during degradation and secretion in response to stimuli from the external environment. A mechanism that could regulate cell mass is endocytosis, the primary cellular process that controls the uptake of macromolecules and growth factor signaling at the cell surface. However, how the different endocytic mechanisms regulate cell mass at different timescales is not well understood. The objective of QBiOCELL is to determine how endocytosis regulates cell mass by developing a cell nano-balance based on a new class of a-quartz mass sensors that we have engineered. The results of this project should provide fundamental understanding of the molecular mechanisms regulating cell mass in physiology, and stimulate biomedical applications, for instance to monitor the mass response of virus-infected cells to specific therapeutic strategies.