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报告题目：Tuning the binding selectivity in molecular recognition, targeting and activation
报告时间：2025-03-25 09:30
报告人： Jure Dobnikar
Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
报告地点：卢嘉锡楼202报告厅
转播地点：翔安校区能源材料大楼3号楼会议室5，漳州校区生化主楼307教室
报告摘要：
Vital biological processes require the ability to recognize specific conditions and respond only when necessary. This is especially critical in immune responses, where both failure to respond and incorrect responses (e.g., autoimmune disorders) can be life-threatening. At the molecular level, living systems must respond to specific molecules in an on-off manner, triggering a sharp response when ligand density exceeds a threshold. Martinez-Veracoechea and Frenkel showed that probes with strong ligand bonds lack selectivity, while those with multiple weak bonds can achieve "super-selectivity" by leveraging combinatorial entropy. We developed a theory of optimal multivalent binding for targeting cells with arbitrary receptor compositions, applied to detect microbial genomes, and demonstrated its role in immune response activation and autoimmune regulation. In recent work, we found that tuning inter-receptor attraction can enhance or suppress cellular responses. Cells near critical conditions can switch receptor clustering on or off with small changes in attraction (less than kBT), enabling precise control of multivalent binding. This suggests the immune system may adjust receptor attraction to activate or deactivate immune cells based on ligand density. Our findings reveal how macromolecular assembly and multivalent binding mechanics transform nonspecific interactions into specific, controllable processes in biomolecular systems.
报告人简介：
Jure Dobnikar graduated in theoretical physics from University of Ljubljana in 2001. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Konstanz and University of Graz, and later as a senior researcher at Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana and at University of Cambridge. In 2014, he moved to Beijing to manage the International Soft Matter Research Center at BUCT and in 2016 he accepted a permanent position at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of sciences, where he is currently a full professor and the leader of the SM9 research group. His research interests are in physical modelling of soft and biological matter, particularly colloidal interactions, self-assembly, non-equilibrium phenomena, active matter, bacterial motility, and multivalent binding in cellular targeting and activation processes. He is also the director of the newly established CECAM-CN node with a mission to bring high quality scientific event organization and international exchange possibilities to China.
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