Our main aim is to obtain a mechanistic understanding of cellular processes that are important in human health and disease. We use structural biology, and in particular cryo-electron microscopy, to visualize and analyze biomolecular complexes in the highest atomic detail. This enables us to obtain snapshots of protein complexes “in action”. A major research interest of our lab is the actin cytoskeleton.
The actin cytoskeleton constitutes a versatile network of filaments that controls the shape and movement of all eukaryotic cells. It is centered around actin, a highly conserved protein that is capable of transitioning between monomeric (G-actin) and filamentous (F-actin) states. The organization, assembly and dynamic turnover of actin filaments are crucial for a plethora of cellular processes, and are therefore tightly regulated by actin-binding proteins (ABPs). Our research questions include:
• How do actin filaments interact with ABPs to control cell shape and movement?
• Can we understand at the atomic level how the dysregulation of actin dynamics leads to severe diseases such as cancer?
• What is the molecular interplay between the actin cytoskeleton and the cell membrane?
For more reading, see: Oosterheert et al. 2025-Trends Cell Biol. (DOI: 10.1016/j.tcb.2024.12.009); 2024-Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.adn9560); 2023-NSMB (DOI: 10.1038/s41594-023-01101-9); 2022-Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05241-8).