QCB master calendar

Join us in person for refreshments beginning at 1:30 p.m. outside Beckman 3151, Marie Cristin Spindler will speak at 2 p.m. in Beckman 3269. "Spatial Organization Modulates Cellular Processes: Towards More Realistic Whole-Cell Models of Yeast"

ABSTRACT: Modeling a realistic cellular architecture is essential for capturing cellular processes in 4D whole-cell models, as cellular function emerges from spatial organization. In this seminar, I present two examples that demonstrate the importance of spatially resolved modeling. First, in the context of the galactose switch, we show that representing ER-associated ribosomes is required to predict GAL2 membrane protein production, highlighting how spatial organization constrains membrane protein translation. Second, we investigate how changes in cellular architecture under stress affect intracellular diffusion. We show that the emergence of structural obstacles under energy depletion can significantly reduce diffusion. Together, these results demonstrate that spatially resolved models are required to faithfully capture cellular processes. This motivates ongoing work on segmenting FIB-SEM volumes to extract organelle geometries, enabling more complete spatially resolved whole-cell models.