Shown above is the structure of an actin wave propagating across a 3 by 3 micron piece of cell membrane. Such waves occur in Dictyostelium and several other cell types, and we are working on pinning down the networks that drive them. Take a look at the movie of simulated fluorescence . These results were obtained from a stochastic model of actin filament growth combined with Brownian dynamics simulations. More recently, under support from NIH Grant R01 GM107667, we have extended these methods to treat endocytosis.
