Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 3: Computational Biophysics I

BP 3.7: Invited Talk

Monday, March 17, 2025, 11:15–11:45, H44

Killing to survive - how protein-lipid interactions drive programmed cell death — •Kristyna Pluhackova — University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

Programmed cell death is an essential process of eukaryotic life, enabling e.g., embryonic development, regeneration, or fighting pathogens. Depending on the needs of an organism, diverse molecular mechanisms of cell death exist, determining among others the speed of cell death, its extent and the impact on surrounding cells. Not surprisingly, dysregulation of cell death culminates in diverse diseases, the most prominent of all being cancer.

Here, I reveal molecular details of protein-lipid interactions in programmed cell death by multiscaling molecular dynamics simulations. First, I unveil how lipids unplug medium-sized membrane pores formed by a pyroptotic agent gasdermin and reveal astonishing adaptability of the pore shape. Next, I demonstrate how the gasdermin species and the lipid composition determine the process of gasdermin pore formation. At last, I resolve the mechanism through which ninjurin-1 disrupts membranes during plasma membrane rupture, the terminal event of many cell-death processes.

Keywords: molecular dynamics simulations; programmed cell death; gasdermin; ninjurin; protein-lipid interactions