Descriptif
The functioning of many essential physiological processes such as muscle contraction and cell motility rely primarily on nano-scale mechanisms involving protein interactions. At these scales the effect of the thermal fluctuations cannot be neglected and therefore modelling these processes requires tools from statistical mechanics.
The objective of this course is to present these tools via the modelling of essential components of cell motility.
The course alternates between plenary lectures and numerical lab sessions.
The first two lectures are dedicated to building a minimal model of cell motility. The two next ones focus on introducing the basics of statistical mechanics. Then, these concepts will be applied to the description of cell adhesion, molecular motor contractility, growth of the actin network, etc. Finally, all these elements will be reintroduced in the description of cell motility, and discussed with respect to recent publications.
Objectifs pédagogiques
At the end of the lecture, the students are expected to be able to understand basic statistical mechanics concepts, to formulate and simulate simple models and describe the associated results.
They are also expected to be able to critically read a scientific paper on cellular or subcellular biophysics involving statistical mechanics, in particular on cell motility.
Diplôme(s) concerné(s)
Parcours de rattachement
Format des notes
Numérique sur 20Littérale/grade réduitPour les étudiants du diplôme M1 Mécanique
Pour les étudiants du diplôme M2 Biomécanique et Ingéniérie Biomédical
L'UE est acquise si Note finale >= 10- Crédits ECTS acquis : 3 ECTS