Room 208, School of Arts and Sciences
Central Campus
The dynamics and fate of endosomal vesicles following endocytosis at the plasma membrane are central to the understanding of transport phenomena of various cargoes including signalling receptors in living cells. This endosomal transport network comprises many components including motor proteins, endosomal effectors, lipids, and cytoskeletal elements which drive the transport of cargo through inherently stochastic interactions. The complex dynamics of endosomes and their stochastic motility characteristics in the 3-dimensional milieu demands rapid volumetric imaging. Using
Lattice light-sheet microscopy along with tailored image analysis routines, an example of ‘timekeeping’ in the endosomal network will be described where collisions driving endosomal maturations – an example of ensemble regulation by molecular scale events. These processes and their varieties may play an essential role in endosomes as the logistical basis of signal interpretation by single cells. Further, novel ‘across-the-scales’ imaging approaches to study endosomal transport and signalling events in live, developing organisms will be described. The use of Airy beams, that offer an increased flexibility between resolution, field-of-view, and insensitivity to optical obstacles in a light-sheet geometry for subcellular imaging in large single cells to tissues will be discussed. Examples from our newly built microscope with data from model systems and organisms such as Mouse oocytes, Zebrafish and drosophila will be described where subcellular resolution with a step-change in temporal resolution has been achieved. Further, data visualisation, analysis and interpretation tools that need to go together with such big-data imaging will be described.
Senthil Arumugam received his PhD training in the lab of Professor Petra Schwille at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, focusing on self-assembly and self-organisation of proteins.
His post-doctoral work in the labs of Prof Patricia Bassereau and Prof Ludger Johannes at the Curie Institute, Paris, France, focused on protein-membrane interactions and intracellular trafficking.
Dr Arumugam joined Single Molecule Science at the University of New South Wales as an independent group leader in September 2016. Since October 2019, he is an EMBL Australia Group Leader at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute.
