Ana J. García-Sáez – Membrane Dynamics

Our department aims at understanding the underlying physical principles and molecular mechanisms that govern membrane organization and dynamics. A key open question is how membrane behavior and signaling are coordinated by the interplay between multiple molecular components and the membrane mechanical properties. We focus our research on the mitochondrial alterations during apoptosis as well as on membrane permeabilization as a common feature in the execution of regulated cell death.

To these aims, we have established a multi-disciplinary department that develops new microscopy tools and combines biophysics, biochemistry and cell biology in reconstituted minimal systems and in single cells to analyze mitochondrial permeabilization and additional alterations during apoptosis from a quantitative perspective. We also apply these methods to study the molecular mechanisms of membrane permeabilization that execute other forms of regulated cell death.