Comert Kural
Assistant Professor
2018 Physics Research Building
191 W. Woodruff Avenue
Columbus, OH
43210
Areas of Expertise
- Physics
Education
- BS, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, 2002
- PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007
- Postdoctoral, Harvard Medical School, 2008-2012
Mechanical forces mediated by clathrin-coated structures have central roles in skeletal muscle cotractility and transduction of central developmental signals between neighboring cells. Mounting evidence suggests that mechanobiology of clathrin dynamics works in the other direction as well, i.e., major constituents of membrane tension resist membrane invagination and regulate the rate of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in cells. We develop advanced imaging and quantitative data analysis tools for i) characterizing mechanoregulation of clathrin coat dynamics and structure within cells and tissues and ii) elucidating the mechanism through which cells produce and exert forces through formation of clathrin-coated structures.