NWO Vidi grant awarded to the Oosterheert lab

The cells in our body interact with their surroundings to control their movement and promote their differentiation. The coupling between the extracellular matrix and the actin cytoskeleton inside the cell is driven by integrin-adhesion complexes, which constitute large protein complexes at the membrane. Integrin-adhesion complexes are essential for embryonic development, wound healing and immune responses, while their dysregulation is associated with pathological conditions such as cancer metastasis, thrombosis and heart disease.

In this project, we aim to understand in molecular detail how integrin-adhesion complexes arrange and how they link to actin filaments (F-actin). Our team will reconstitute protein complexes in a test tube and then use cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to visualize their assembly at the membrane.
 

Our group is very grateful to NWO for funding this project. We are very much looking forward to the discoveries that lay ahead of us in the coming five years. Watch this space for scientific updates in the future!

For a complete list of all Vidi-awardees this year, check the following link:
https://www.nwo.nl/en/news/109-vidi-grants-awarded-to-talented-researchers