Membrane trafficking
Quantitative studies of clathrin-mediated endocytosis and intracellular dynamics.
How living cells sense, move, and internalize
Welcome to the Intracellular Dynamics Laboratory at The Ohio State University.
We study how live cells interact with their environment by developing and using advanced live-cell imaging techniques. These tools allow us to visualize intracellular events in real time with high spatial and temporal detail.
Our research focuses on cellular processes such as endocytosis, signaling, migration, senescence, and fibrosis. We combine biophysics, cell biology, developmental biology, and quantitative microscopy to understand how membrane trafficking and mechanics shape cell behavior.
We are always interested in highly motivated postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
Research highlights
Selected visual highlights from the lab’s work in endocytosis, mechanobiology, and imaging innovation.
Mechanobiology and disease
How cell mechanics influence signaling, apoptosis, and cancer-related phenotypes.
Imaging innovation
Instrumentation and computational methods for super-resolution and live-cell imaging.
Clathrin coat structure
Studying how coated pits and plaques form, curve, and internalize.
Computational microscopy
Image analysis pipelines that reveal dynamic intracellular organization.
Collaborative lab culture
An interdisciplinary group at the interface of physics and cell biology.
Life at Ohio State
A short campus video for prospective students, collaborators, and visitors.
Members
Principal Investigator
Comert Kural
B.Sc. Bilkent University, Physics, 2002
Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Biophysics and Computational Biology, 2007
Postdoctoral Training: Harvard Medical School, Immune Disease Institute, 2008–2012
Graduate Students
Emily Chan
Tianyao Wu
Cris Thompson
Valeria Arteaga Muniz
Aritra Mondal
Undergraduate Students
Hermes Hermes
Arvin Alam
Henry Jiang
Selected Alumni
Hirak Basu
Umida Djakbarova, Ph.D.
Marlin Keller
Connor Luellen
Scott Huber, Ph.D.
Joshua P. Ferguson, Ph.D.
Research
We aim to understand what happens when cells physically interact with their environment—specifically, how their eating habits, or endocytosis, are influenced and how this impacts cellular functions. We are also interested in uncovering the mechanical properties of cells and predicting their next moves—whether they divide, migrate, or self-destruct—by analyzing their eating patterns.
Clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) is the primary mechanism by which membrane lipids and proteins are internalized from the cell surface. Over the years, various biophysical and biochemical methods have been used to study the structural and dynamic properties of endocytic clathrin coats. However, fundamental aspects of CME remain debated because the field has lacked experimental approaches that directly link ultrastructural and dynamic properties.
To address this, we develop innovative experimental and analytical techniques to study the structure and dynamics of clathrin-coated structures both in cultured cells and in tissues of multicellular organisms.
The dynamics and structures of endocytic clathrin coats vary remarkably—not just across different cell types, but even within the same culture or on different regions of a single cell. We have shown that this spatiotemporal heterogeneity in CME dynamics becomes particularly pronounced during cell division, migration, and spreading.
Changes in CME rates contribute to increased proliferation, migration, and metastasis of cancer cells. However, the mechanisms driving this heterogeneity remain unclear.
We focus on the clathrin adaptors AP2, FCHo, and CALM to test hypotheses about how membrane tension and cellular state regulate endocytosis. Our goals include:
- determining recruitment dynamics and stoichiometric ratios of adaptors to clathrin coats under different membrane tension levels,
- uncovering distinct roles of curvature-generating clathrin adaptors in maintaining CME under varying tension conditions,
- understanding how spatiotemporal CME heterogeneity enables migration, spreading, and division.
Clathrin triskelions can assemble into membrane-bound coats that form polyhedral cages and lattices in an almost limitless number of geometries. Regardless of shape or size, endocytic vesicle formation requires curvature generation throughout the lifespan of clathrin coats. However, when and how this curvature develops remains an open question.
Electron microscopy provides high-resolution snapshots of clathrin-coated structures at different curvature stages, but these images lack a temporal dimension. To address this, we use super-resolution fluorescence approaches to study curvature formation in different classes of clathrin-coated structures in live cells and tissues.
Software
TraCKer
TraCKer is a simple but fast two-dimensional particle tracking program. It uses a threshold determined over a Mexican hat filtered image for detection of fluorescent spots. Detected maxima are then connected in time by linking mutually nearest neighbors.
The required input is the path to the desired movie as a two-dimensional multipage TIFF. The output is saved as a MAT file containing tracked positions and intensities.
Slope Finder
Slope Finder determines clathrin coat growth-rate distributions from intensity traces. It takes the TraCKer intensity output, the movie frame rate, and a global background value for the movie corresponding to a signal with SNR = 1.
The output is a cell array of normalized slope values. Since endpoints are padded with zeros, those zeros should be excluded when forming a proper slope histogram.
Trace Library
createTraceLibrary groups clathrin coat intensity traces into clusters that share similar trace lengths and intensity profiles. Similarity is judged using trace_dist, which generates a distance metric between traces.
Each cluster has an average intensity trace and an associated growth-rate histogram. The cluster can then serve as a library for future comparisons using libraryLookup.
Publications
- “Spatial Regulation of Endocytosis and Adhesion Formation Governs Breast Cancer Cell Migration Under Confinement”
- “Single-image Inference of Clathrin-mediated Endocytosis Dynamics via Deep Learning”
- “Spatial Regulation of Endocytosis and Adhesion Formation Governs Breast Cancer Cell Migration Under Confinement”
- “Approaching Maximum Resolution In Structured Illumination Microscopy Via Accurate Noise Modeling”
- “Targeting Endocytosis to Sensitize Cancer Cells to Programmed Cell Death”
- “Mechano-inhibition of endocytosis sensitizes cancer cells to Fas-induced Apoptosis”
- “Endocytosis at Extremes: Formation and Internalization of Giant Clathrin-1 coated Pits Under Elevated Membrane Tension”
- “De novo Endocytic Clathrin Coats Develop Curvature at Early Stages of Their Formation”
- “CALM supports clathrin-coated vesicle completion upon membrane tension increase”
- “Dynamic interplay between cell membrane tension and clathrin-mediated endocytosis”
- “Deep learning enables cross-modality super-resolution in fluorescence microscopy”
- “Mechanoregulation of Clathrin-mediated Endocytosis”
- “Membrane Mechanics Govern Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity of Endocytic Clathrin Coat Dynamics”
- “Deciphering dynamics of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in a living organism”
News & Pictures
Recent and selected lab updates. Older entries are grouped by year to keep the page organized and keyboard-friendly.
2025
Valeria Arteaga-Muniz received the Molecular Biophysics Training Program best oral presentation award. Congratulations Valeria.
Emily Chan received the Biophysics Graduate Program best oral presentation award. Congratulations Emily.
Approaching Maximum Resolution in Structured Illumination Microscopy via Accurate Noise Modeling is accepted for publication by NPJ Imaging.
2024
Mechano-inhibition of Endocytosis Sensitizes Cancer Cells to Fas-induced Apoptosis is accepted for publication in Cell Death and Disease.
Targeting endocytosis to sensitize cancer cells to programmed cell death is accepted for publication in Biochemical Society Transactions.
2023
Umida Djakbarova received a Pelotonia Scholars Symposium Award. Congratulations Umida.
Cris Thompson received a National Society of Black Physicists best poster award. Congratulations Cris.
2022
Emily Chan received a Biophysical Society Travel Award. Congratulations Emily.
We raised $1,900 for Pelotonia. Good job team.
Endocytosis at Extremes: Formation and Internalization of Giant Clathrin-coated Pits Under Elevated Membrane Tension is accepted for publication by Frontiers Molecular Biosciences.
Openings
We are interested in hiring postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
To apply, email Comert with your CV and a short note about your interests.
Location
Physics Research Building, 191 W Woodruff Ave, Columbus, OH 43210
