Paul MATSUDAIRA
Founding Deputy Director and Professor, Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore
Research Program
Leader, Mechanotransduction in Tissues
Affiliations
Emeritus Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore
Emeritus Professor, Centre for BioImaging Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore
Kevin Heinrich Kaub
Research Fellow, Michelot Group
Fang Zhou
Research Fellow, Holle Group
MBI warmly welcomes Shailaja Seetharaman!
MBI warmly welcomes Shailaja Seetharaman as a MBI PI leading the Vascular Mechano-Medicine Lab.
Paul Matsudaira
Emeritus Professor
Research Areas
Mechanobiology of cells and tissues on viscoelastic surfaces, nanoscale dynamics, biomaging sciences.
Research Interests
The Matsudaira Lab studies the role of mechanics in epithelial tissue migration and remodeling during development and disease. The organization and migration of epithelial tissues are sensitive to the underlying substratum, especially on visco-elastic substrates. This range of stiffness defines the environment of most basement membranes, cell-cell interactions, and early developmental processes. On the one hand, the lab is interested in the mechanical signatures of the development of chirality, convergence, and extension during the early steps in morphogenesis of the Zebrafish embryo. Other studies are focused on the role of substrate viscoelasticity in tissue remodeling during disease and its regulation by cell-matrix and cell-cell signaling pathways. In order to study complex, multi-scale dynamics the lab develops and applies novel imaging methods such as in situ TEM and strain light-sheet microscopy.
Biography
Formerly a biology and bioengineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Paul Matsudaira has studied the cytoskeleton since graduating from college. He was the EM technician of Tom Schroeder where he helped investigate the role of microfilaments in the contractile ring. As a graduate student of Dave Burgess he identified the structure and function of the intestine brush border cytoskeleton. Following postdoctoral research on the assembly of actin bundles at the MPI Biophysical Chemistry with Klaus Weber and the MRC LMB with Alan Weeds, Paul started his academic career at the Whitehead Institute and MIT where his lab studied biophysics of actin and other polymer protein bundles, mechanics of polymers and single cells motility, and developed microanalytical methods. In 2009, he moved to Singapore to establish the Centre for BioImaging Sciences, head the Department of Biological Sciences, and help found the Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore.
Education
PhD in Biological Sciences from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Selected Publications (5 of 177)
- Zheng J, Han SP, Chiu YJ, Yip AK, Boichat N, Pauli AR, Zhu S, Matsudaira P. 2017 Substrate viscoelasticity induces coalescence of epithelial monolayers via subcellular redistribution of vinculin. Biophys J. 113:1585-98.
- Loh D, Sen S, Bosman M, Tan SF, Zhong J, Nijhuis C, Kral P, Matsudaira P, Mirsaidov U. 2016 Multi-step nucleation of nanocrystals in aqueous solution. Nat. Chem 9:77-82.
- Ai Kia Yip, Keng-Hwee Chiam and Paul Matsudaira. Traction stress analysis and modeling reveal that amoeboid migration in confined spaces is accompanied by expansive forces and requires the structural integrity of the membrane–cortex interactions. Integrative Biology, 2015, DOI: 10.1039/ C4IB00245H. First published online 27 May 2015
- Bhattacharya D, Singh V R, Zhi C, Peter T C, Matsudaira P, Barbastathis G. 2012. Three dimensional HiLo-based structured illumination for a Digital Scanned Laser Sheet Microscopy (DSLM) in thick tissue imaging. Optics Express 20(25):27337-27347.
- Mirsaidov UM, Zheng H, Bhattacharya D, Casana Y, Matsudaira P. 2012. Imaging protein structure in water at 2.7 nm resolution by TEM. Biophys J. 102:L15-7.
Recent Publications
- Zhu S, Loo YT, Veerapathiran S, Loo TYJ, Tran BN, Teh C, Zhong J, Matsudaira P, Saunders TE, and Wohland T. Receptor binding and tortuosity explain morphogen local-to-global diffusion coefficient transition. Biophys J 2024;. [PMID: 39049492]
- Tavakoli S, Zhu S, and Matsudaira P. Cell clusters containing intestinal stem cells line, the zebrafish intestine intervillus pocket. iScience 2022; 25(5):104280. [PMID: 35586068]
- Bhattacharya D, Zhong J, Tavakoli S, Kabla A, and Matsudaira P. Strain maps characterize the symmetry of convergence and extension patterns during zebrafish gastrulation. Sci Rep 2021; 11(1):19357. [PMID: 34588480]
- Wu H, Ng DTW, Cheong I, and Matsudaira P. The degradation-promoting roles of deubiquitinases Ubp6 and Ubp3 in cytosolic and ER protein quality control. PLoS ONE 2020; 15(5):e0232755. [PMID: 32401766]
- Chan SN, Prasad R, and Matsudaira P. Genetic Selection Based on a Ste6*C-HA-Ura3 Substrate Identifies New Cytosolic Quality Control Alleles in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. G3 (Bethesda) 2020; 10(6):1879-1891. [PMID: 32299823]
- Matsudaira PT, and Verma CS. Editorial. Prog. Biophys. Mol. Biol. 2019;. [PMID: 30951764]
- Wadduwage DN, Singh VR, Choi H, Yaqoob Z, Heemskerk H, Matsudaira P, and So PTC. Near-common-path interferometer for imaging Fourier-transform spectroscopy in wide-field microscopy. Optica 2017; 4(5):546-556. [PMID: 29392168]
- Zheng JY, Han SP, Chiu Y, Yip AK, Boichat N, Zhu SW, Zhong J, and Matsudaira P. Epithelial Monolayers Coalesce on a Viscoelastic Substrate through Redistribution of Vinculin. Biophys. J. 2017;. [PMID: 28844472]
- Zheng JY, Tan HL, Matsudaira PT, and Choo A. Excess reactive oxygen species production mediates monoclonal antibody-induced human embryonic stem cell death via oncosis. Cell Death Differ. 2017;. [PMID: 28106884]
- . https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28007915
MBI Lab Members
Protein Localization
Protein LocalizationIn order for subcellular processes to be carried out within defined compartments or cellular regions, mechanisms must exist to ensure the required protein components are present at the sites and at an adequate concentration. [...]
Spatiotemporal control of DNA, RNA, protein and lipid synthesis
Spatiotemporal control of DNA, RNA, protein and lipid synthesisIn eukaryotes, synthesis of DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids is performed in a spatiotemporal manner. Each molecule is produced within specialized organelles or compartments with strict regulatory [...]
How do Focal Adhesions Sense the Physical Properties of the Matrix?
How do Focal Adhesions Sense the Physical Properties of the Matrix?Based on the hypothetical protein switches, two models (1 and 2 below) have been put forth to describe the physical mechanism of focal adhesion mechanosensitivity [...]
The Cell
The CellCells are the basic units of life; small machines that facilitate and sustain every process within a living organism. Muscle cells contract to maintain a heartbeat and allow us to move, neurons form networks [...]
Actin Filaments
What are actin filaments? Actin filaments (F-actin) are linear polymers of globular actin (G-actin) subunits and occur as microfilaments in the cytoskeleton and as thin filaments, which are part of the contractile apparatus, in [...]
How are actin filaments distributed in cells and tissues?
How are actin filaments distributed in cells and tissues? Actin filaments are widely distributed throughout cells, forming a range of cytoskeletal structures and contributing to an even broader range of processes. Some of the [...]
How do actin filaments act as a force-sensing conduit for both internal and external forces?
How do actin filaments act as a force-sensing conduit for both internal and external forces? Internal forces The orientation of individual actin filaments in the cytoskeleton is a force-driven evolutionary process [1] that contributes [...]
How do actin filaments depolymerize?
How do actin filaments depolymerize? Introduction to Actin Filament Depolymerization Whole cell motility and mechanosensing rely on the continual restructuring of the cytoskeleton, particularly within lamellipodia and filopodia; two dynamic structures that contribute to [...]
How does Arp2/3-mediate the nucleation of branched filaments?
How does Arp2/3-mediate the nucleation of branched filaments? The Arp2/3 complex is composed of 7 evolutionarily conserved subunits (Arp2, Arp3, ARPC1-C5) that are structurally similar to the barbed end of actin [1]. The complex [...]
How do actin filaments grow?
How do actin filaments grow? Actin Filaments (F-actin) grow from the polymerization of G-actin monomers Actin is a highly abundant (10-100 micromolar on average),~42 kDa structural protein found in all eukaryotic cells (except for [...]
What are the functions of actin filaments?
What are the functions of actin filaments? Several biological processes related to cell shape and movement depend on actin filaments (reviewed in [1]). Some keys functions are: To form the dynamic cytoskeleton, which gives [...]
What is actin nucleation?
What is actin nucleation? The first step in actin polymerization is known as ‘nucleation’. This step sees the formation of an actin nucleus, which is essentially a complex of three actin monomers, from which [...]
