Microscopic Mosh Pits: How Molecular Motors Keep Cells Organized

Our upcoming topic will investigate how cells stay organized. A cell must be incredibly organized to function. However, because the cell interior is dense and crowded with molecules that are roiling with motion and knocking each other around, maintaining this order is a challenging and remarkable feat. Important players in organizing the cell are molecular motors, microscopic engines that can generate motion and force, which allows them to shuttle cargo like a microscopic postal service. This talk will introduce you to the often strange and unintuitive world within a cell, and explores how these motors are able to function in this extremely crowded and dynamic environment.

The speaker, David Altman, is a Professor of Physics at Willamette University. He earned a BA in physics from the University of Chicago, where he discovered his love for research in the lab of Dr. David Grier, studying the motion of microscopic particles and their interactions in fluids. He then went on to earn a PhD in physics at Stanford University, where he was introduced to the field of biophysics and conducted his research in the Biochemistry Department in the lab of Dr. James Spudich. Following this, he conducted two post-doctoral fellowships at Stanford, one focused on teaching in Dr. Richard Zare’s chemistry lab and one focused on motor protein research in Dr Alex Dunn’s chemical engineering lab. He has been at Willamette since 2009, where he has mentored over 60 undergraduate students and three high school students through his biophysics research lab, which investigates microscopic motor proteins and their regulation within a cell.