Science is also fun
Don´t be afraid of ghost cells!!!
Cells adjust their shape to the environment. If the substrate in which they grow is rigid, they tend to spread a lot, on the contrary, on soft substrates, they tend to be round. These different rigidities significantly condition mechanotransduction pathways. Sometimes cells in plastic tissue culture plates adquire weird shapes.
Loving caveolae!!!
Caveolae are mechanosensitive plasma membrane invaginations that sometimes present loving shapes. This structure represents a functional unit at the plasma membrane that is important to pretect the integrity of the plasma membrane when the cell feels mechanical stress. Caveolae also are important signaling platforms, that communicate and organize distant cell domains. I obtained this image in the lab of Miguel Angel del Pozo, my former boss, collaborator and friend.
Triangle cell
We use micropatterns of different shapes to force cells adquiring different shapes. This technique is used to equilize cell shape populations and to study cell mechanotransductions.
Little criatures live inside us!!
This electron microscopy image obtained from a human cell demonstrates that small aliens live outside our cells. The function of these criatures is currently unknown. Interested in this project? Write me!
Dancing protein
This image shows a protein (in green) dancing chachachá under blue neon lights (DNA). This protein labels some regions of the nuclear envelope; its functions and the nature of these domains is currently unclear.
A duck or Loch Ness monster?
Some electron microscopy preparations may look weird.