Douglas N Robinson
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biophysics
Cells constantly push, pull and get squeezed, and they must sense these forces to divide, move, grow and build tissues. Inside the cell, a protein scaffolding called the cytoskeleton assembles where force is applied and then comes apart again.
- Fields
Biophysics
Biology
Biochemistry
- Topics
mechanobiology
cytoskeleton
mechanosensing
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2027
What they work on
- Test SpringSaLaD computer-model predictions about how Contractility Kits, premade bundles of myosin II, cortexillin I and IQGAP proteins, form in Dictyostelium amoebae, using measured cellular concentrations and binding strengths.
- Determine how mechanical force drives the assembly of Contractility Kits and nonmuscle myosin II bipolar thick filaments, using interference scattering mass spectrometry to weigh single molecules and complexes.
- Measure the stretchiness of myosin thick filaments with magnetic tweezers and test how it limits the disassembling enzymes MHCKC (in Dictyostelium) and PKCzeta (for human NMIIB).
- Determine how the roughly 20% assembly setpoint of myosin's force-driven accumulation, which differs by cell type and cell-cycle stage, shapes NMIIB dynamics, cell division and gene expression.
More about the research
Because the machinery assembles in response to force, it can tune itself, and it can turn a physical input into a chemical signal. How this force-guided assembly works at the molecular level, and how it changes what a cell does, is the central question of this work.
Why it matters
Force sensing is needed for cells to multiply, for normal development and for keeping the body healthy. By showing how mechanical forces guide the local assembly of myosin II and related machinery, and how this shifts cell behavior and identity, the work could inform understanding of how cells divide and change fate. It also offers a modeling framework that others can apply to force-responsive protein systems.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
E. Ostap
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Biophysics
Determine the structural basis of myosin force sensing by testing conserved residues that tune tension sensitivity in Myo1b and Myo1c, using engineered motors, microsecond optical trapping and cryo-EM.
Dimitrios Vavylonis
Lehigh University, PA·Biophysics
Model how fission yeast nodes — membrane protein clusters that time cell cycle progression and cytokinesis — assemble at the nanoscale, focusing on interactions of Cdc15, Mid1 and Cdr2 with each other and with the membrane.
Gregory Alushin
Rockefeller University, NY·Biophysics
Determine the structural mechanisms and cellular functions of catch bonds, protein contacts that strengthen under pulling force, in cytoskeletal crosslinking proteins and cell adhesion proteins implicated in force sensing.
The school
Johns Hopkins University: 100 labs on PI Pages, $4.1B a year on research, 622 research doctorates a year.
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