Physical chemistry Curie - Institut Curie / CNRS UMR 168 / UPMC

Unit Director: Prof. Jean-François Joanny
Unit Assistant Director: Patrick Keller

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Keywords: biological physics, biomimetic systems, molecular motors, cytoskeleton, cell motility, membrane, tissue

The Physical Chemistry ‘Curie' unit is located on the central Paris site in the Curie Pavillon, the historical building where Marie Curie worked. The unit is associated with the Institut Curie, the CNRS, and the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI). It comprises 13 research groups and 2 platforms, including 27 permanent researchers, 21 postdocs, 8 technical staff, and around 40 PhD and Masters students.

Originally composed of physicists, chemists and biologists our unit is developing interdisciplinary approaches that use physics, chemistry and biology to gain novel insights into cellular mechanisms. The research covers a broad spectrum from single molecules (molecular motors, DNA-protein interactions, membrane proteins) to cellular functions (cell adhesion, cell motility, intracellular transport) and the collective behaviour of cells in tissues (wound healing, morphogenesis).

The approaches range from theoretical studies – including statistical physics of non-equilibrium systems – to the organic synthesis of molecules and macromolecules, and they include many experimental studies on biological and biomimetic systems in which the parameters can be changed. We use a variety of microscopical techniques such as optical, multiphoton, electron and atomic force microscopy, as well as other experimental techniques like microfluidics in a clean-room environment, optical tweezers and magnetic tweezers and micromanipulation.

Our major achievements include: developing a theoretical and experimental understanding of how molecular motors work together; direct observation of supramolecular assemblies of proteins in native membranes, as well as quantitative descriptions of cellular actin-based motility and intracellular traffic through biomimicry assays.

The unit's long-term goal is to uncover the physical laws involved in cellular functions.

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