Membranes and Cellular Functions
UMR168 – Physico Chimie Curie Lab
Patricia Bassereau
Team Leader
[email protected]
Tel: +33 1 56 24 67 84
Lipid membranes exhibit non-trivial properties Especially at length scales much larger than
molecular sizes. Purely molecular description of membranes is Not Sufficient to Accomplish
Accomplish Accomplish Accomplish Accomplish accomplish achieve a quantitative understanding
of Their function, and meso-scale concepts coming from soft matter and statistical physics are
considers. In addition, cell membranes involve a wide number of proteins that may have some
activity and are inserted or interact with membranes, which completely Call Call Call Call Call
Call the exchange physical description.
Our general goal is to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of biological
membranes and of Their role in cells.
INSTITUT CURIE, 20 rue d’Ulm, 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France | 1
Membranes and Cellular Functions
UMR168 – Physico Chimie Curie Lab
Model bio-membranes and cell membranes
Our group HAS Develops Multidisciplinary approach, Largely based on synthetic biology,
biomimetic systems and quantitative measurements of Physics, To Understand the role of lipid
membranes and associated proteins in essential cellular functions , such as:
intracellular trafficking, endo / exocytosis, cell infection, transmembrane transportation of ions
( “active membrane”) and protein diffusion.
We also Investigate Were Both live cells and on in vitro systems the Mechanisms leading to
filopodia formation and power generation by thesis cell structures.
We Develop different model membrane systems, in PARTICULARLY based on Giant Unilamellar
Vesicles (GUV) and purified proteins (cytosolic or transmembrane). Our quantitative confocal
microscopy experiments combined Generally, optical tweezers, micromanipulation, micropipette
aspiration, as well as single particle tracking for diffusion measurements. Since Many projects
address issues related to membrane deformation (curvature) and membrane mechanics, the
group HAS Developed assays with membrane nanotubes pulled from GUVs gold from cells.
Our Approaches and issues are motivated by our close cooperation with cell biologists at the
Institut Curie and outside, with Microbiologists and with Theoreticians .
Key publications
Year of publication 2016
Mijo Simunovic, Emma Evergren, Ivan Golushko, Coline Prévost, Henri-François Renard, Ludger
Johannes, Harvey T McMahon, Vladimir Lorman, Gregory A Voth, Patricia Bassereau (2016 Oct 4)
How curvature-generating proteins build scaffolds on membrane nanotubes.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America : 113 : DOI :
10.1073/pnas.1606943113
Year of publication 2015
Coline Prévost, Hongxia Zhao, John Manzi, Emmanuel Lemichez, Pekka Lappalainen, Andrew
Callan-Jones, Patricia Bassereau (2015 Feb 26)
IRSp53 senses negative membrane curvature and phase separates along
membrane tubules.
Nature communications : 8529 : DOI : 10.1038/ncomms9529
Matthias Garten, Sophie Aimon, Patricia Bassereau, Gilman E S Toombes (2015 Feb 5)
INSTITUT CURIE, 20 rue d’Ulm, 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France | 2
Membranes and Cellular Functions
UMR168 – Physico Chimie Curie Lab
Reconstitution of a transmembrane protein, the voltage-gated ion channel,
KvAP, into giant unilamellar vesicles for microscopy and patch clamp studies.
Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE : 52281 : DOI : 10.3791/52281
Henri-François Renard, Mijo Simunovic, Joël Lemière, Emmanuel Boucrot, Maria Daniela GarciaCastillo, Senthil Arumugam, Valérie Chambon, Christophe Lamaze, Christian Wunder, Anne K
Kenworthy, Anne A Schmidt, Harvey T McMahon, Cécile Sykes, Patricia Bassereau, Ludger
Johannes (2015 Jan 22)
Endophilin-A2 functions in membrane scission in clathrin-independent
endocytosis.
Nature : 493-6 : DOI : 10.1038/nature14064
Year of publication 2014
Laura Picas, Julien Viaud, Kristine Schauer, Stefano Vanni, Karim Hnia, Vincent Fraisier, Aurélien
Roux, Patricia Bassereau, Frédérique Gaits-Iacovoni, Bernard Payrastre, Jocelyn Laporte, JeanBaptiste Manneville, Bruno Goud (2014 May 19)
BIN1/M-Amphiphysin2 induces clustering of phosphoinositides to recruit its
downstream partner dynamin.
Nature communications : 5647 : DOI : 10.1038/ncomms6647
Ayako Yamada, Alexandre Mamane, Jonathan Lee-Tin-Wah, Aurélie Di Cicco, Coline Prévost,
Daniel Lévy, Jean-François Joanny, Evelyne Coudrier, Patricia Bassereau (2014 Apr 7)
Catch-bond behaviour facilitates membrane tubulation by non-processive
myosin 1b.
Nature communications : 3624 : DOI : 10.1038/ncomms4624
INSTITUT CURIE, 20 rue d’Ulm, 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France | 3