Integrins are α/β heterodimeric receptors that mediate cell-extracellular matrix and cell-cell interactions. The consequence of integrin ligand interaction is the attachment of the contractile cytoskeleton to the plasma membrane, the clustering of integrins and recruitment of cytoskeletal and signalling molecules into focal adhesion sites, and the activation of various intracellular signalling pathways.
Since integrin cytoplasmic domains lack both an actin-binding site as well as enzymatic activity, all integrin-mediated effects are accomplished by integrin-associated molecules. I will discuss the in vivo consequences caused by mutating integrin tail-associated proteins, and how these studies helped understanding the way integrins work.
Reinhard Fässler (*1956 in Dornbirn, Austria) studied medicine and received his MD at the University of Innsbruck (1981). After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Cambridge, USA) he became group leader at the Institute for Molecular Biology in Salzburg (1991) and at the MPI for Biochemistry in Martinsried (1993). From 1996 - 2002 he was professor and chairman at the Department of Experimental Pathology in Lund (Sweden). Presently Reinhard Fässler is managing director and head of the Department of Molecular Medicine at the MPI for Biochemistry, Martinsried. For his research he has been honored with the Hermann und Lilly Schilling Professorship (1995) and with the Göran Gustafsson Prize (2001), among other awards.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Sven Hammerschmidt