Liedewij Laan
The Laan lab is located in the Department of Bionanoscience, part of the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology. We are pioneering the emerging field of evolutionary cell biophysics.
Evolutionary Cell Biophysics
How is it possible that life is simultaneously highly robust on cell cycle timescales, yet also adaptable on evolutionary timescales? How do these properties emerge from the molecular building blocks of life? As pioneers of the emerging field of evolutionary cell biophysics, we are fascinated by how the physical and chemical properties of the building blocks, or components, of a cell (such as proteins, DNA, lipids etc. that need to obey physical and chemical laws) constrain and facilitate evolution of cellular functions. In this case a cellular function is the result of a complex, highly spatially and temporally regulated network, consisting of many different interacting components, “a biomolecular network”. The biomolecular network we focus on is symmetry breaking in budding yeast, which is the first step in polarity establishment and essential for proliferation. In budding yeast symmetry breaking is achieved by a biomolecular network of ~30 components which, through several regulatory feedback loops, form a localized protein pattern on the cell membrane. As a community we are starting to obtain a molecular understanding of how a living cell is organised by biomolecular networks on cell cycle timescales, however, how these networks reorganize over evolutionary timescales is still a major open question.