Research focus

Note: Christophe Ampe left VIB on 1 Jan 2012. This page is no longer updated

Cellular motility is essential for morphogenesis during development and for survival. The research group investigates different aspects of cell motility, resulting from the dynamic reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. This process is orchestrated by many actin-binding proteins and their regulatory ligands. Whereas many players in actin-based motility have already been identified, their roles, interplay and regulation in specific motile phenomena are only partly understood. Our long-term goal is to understand the biology of the actin system in motility in health and disease, e.g. in neuronal outgrowth during development and in cancer cell migration during metastasis. This involves investigating the temporal and spatial regulation of a complex subcellular system, preferably in a quantitative manner, in relation to a cellular phenotype. For the latter we mainly focus on cell migration and tumor cell invasion, and employ quantification of migration parameters such as cell speed and directionality. To achieve our goal we integrate biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology on various cancer cell lines or on primary cells derived from mice, including a unique beta-actin knockout mouse.
 
Important achievements
We have focused on actin-binding proteins that modulate the actin polymerization cycle. We have made major contributions to understanding the structure-function relationships of these proteins with respect to their interaction with actin and regulatory ligands and in their impact on actin dynamics and cellular motility. Recently, we have been focusing on novel actin-binding proteins, on actin-binding proteins upregulated in cancer, and on interaction partners of known actin-binding proteins. 

The group has also been active in the chaperone field since the development of the notion that actin requires the help of a specific complex of eight subunits to reach its native conformation. In collaboration with Prof. Nicholas Cowan, we were at the forefront in this field by identifying players in the folding pathways of actin and of alpha and beta-tubulin. More recently, we have also investigated actin mutants that are the underlying cause of various myopathies.​​