Speaker

Katharina Gaus, UNSW

Abstract

Single-moleculelocalisation microscopy(SMLM) can provide a truly molecular image of complex biological processes. We aimed to better understand how the T cellreceptor (TCR)translates antigen binding into intracellular signals on which T cell fate decisions are based.With SMLM and novel analyses, we determined how the spatial organisation regulates signal initiation and propagation (Pageon et al. PNAS 2016).We also developed novel FRET sensors to monitor the rate of receptor clustering (Maet al. Nat Commun 2017) anda sensor that reports membrane charges (Ma et al. NatBiotech2017)to understand how biophysical properties of the plasma membrane contribute to TCR signaling. More recently, we developed an improved single molecule microscope that achieves ~2-3 nm localization precisions and thus enables direct distance measurements between membrane proteins(Coelho et al. SciAdvances in press).We also established point pattern statistics for SMLM data that reveals the diversity in spatial organization of the TCR.

Bio

Scientia Professor Katharina Gaus is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales and Head of the EMBL Australia Node in Single Molecule Science. She is also the Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging (2014-2020). Katharina received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1999 and has led an independent research group since 2005. Her group investigates signal transduction processes in T lymphocytes with advanced fluorescence microscopy approaches. She was awarded the Young Investigator Award from the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology (2010), the Gottschalk Medal from the Australian Academy of Science (2012), the New South Wales Science and Engineering Award for Excellence in Biological Sciences (2013) and the Khwarizmi International Award (2018).