The students and faculty members of the School of Biotechnology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, were privileged to welcome Dr. Senthil Arumugam from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, for the invited talk series conducted on August 19, 2019. Dr. Arumugam is the Group Leader of the Cellular Physiology lab at the Single Molecule Science node at the UNSW, Australia. Dr. Arumugam obtained his Ph. D. training under Prof. Petra Schwille at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany. His post-doctoral work at the Curie Institute, Paris, France, focused on protein-membrane interactions and cellular trafficking.
Dr. Arumugam’s talk entitled “Decoding the Dynamic Endosomal Matrix” elaborated upon the principles of transport organization inside the cells like endosomal trafficking in addition to discussing aspects of bacterial cell division, membrane biophysics and the importance of live-cell imaging in scientific studies. His lab is currently interested in utilizing cutting-edge fluorescence-based technologies to address cell-biology problems with an emphasis on endosomal trafficking.
Dr. Arumugam shared his views on how different receptor systems, viruses, toxins and other cargoes are trafficked and their interest in discovering the overall organizational principles of intracellular transport by the imaging-based discovery of various mechanisms and precise quantification of parameters leading to mathematical modelling. Some of the questions his lab is focused on addressing are: How to break the code of intracellular trafficking inside living cells and strategies to control, manipulate and reroute intracellular cargoes. He also detailed the mechanisms of some of the cutting-edge microscopic techniques used in his lab. The most fascinating one was the lattice light-sheet microscopy technique used for live-cell imaging.
Dr. Arumugam’s talk concluded with a very interactive discussion with the students where he answered their questions with great enthusiasm. Overall, the talk was a very enriching experience.
