Research Groups
- Charles Streuli
- Clair Baldock
- Christoph Ballestrem
- Ray Boot-Handford
- Keith Brennan
- Ann Canfield
- Pat Caswell
- Tony Day
- Andrew Gilmore
- Tim Hardingham
- Martin Humphries
- Karl Kadler
- Cay Kielty
- Rachel Lennon
- Paul Lu
- Dave Thornton
- Mark Travis
- Gillian Wallis
- Claudia Wellbrock
- Sarah Woolner
- Thomas Jowitt
- Egor Zindy
Research Groups > Christoph Ballestrem
Recent key publications
Stroud, M.J., Kammerer, R.A. and Ballestrem, C. (2011). Characterisation of GAS2-like 3, a new microtubule and actin-binding protein related to the spectraplakins. J Biol Chem doi: 10.1074/jbc.M111.242263.
Askari, J. A., Tynan, C. J., Webb, S. E., Martin-Fernandez, M. L., Ballestrem, C., and Humphries, M. J. (2010) Focal adhesions are sites of integrin extension, J Cell Biol 188, 891-903 PubMed link.
Humphries JD, Wang P, Streuli CH, Geiger B, Humphries MJ, Ballestrem C (2007)
Vinculin controls focal adhesion formation by direct interactions with talin and actin.
J Cell Biol. 179: 1043-1057. PubMed link.
CHRISTOPH BALLESTREM, PhD
Cell adhesion
For migration over external surfaces cells need to form adhesions with the extracellular matrix and to modulate these adhesions in a spatially- and temporally-coordinated manner. Cell adhesion occurs in specialized sites, known as focal adhesions (FA), where transmembrane adhesion receptors (e.g. integrins) link the extracellular environment to the actin skeleton. The intracellular connection between integrins and microfilaments is regulated by a vast number of adaptor and signaling molecules, interconnected via a huge number of possible molecular interactions. It is apparent that these interactions do not all take place simultaneously and that they are tightly regulated. Our aim is to study molecular interactions in live cells to get a better understanding of how and through which pathways adhesion events in cells are regulated. To monitor such events we use FRET and FRAP analysis.