Interesting links

Address

Raimon Sunyer

Unitat de Biofisica i Bioenginyeria,

Facultat de Medicina. Universitat de Barcelona.

Casanova 143, 5a planta 08036 Barcelona

phone: +34 403 97 64

e-mail: rsunyer(at)ub.edu

I obtained a PhD in July 2008 working on the physical laws that govern cytoskeleton remodeling dynamics. My PhD thesis was co-directed by Daniel Navajas and Felix Ritort. Daniel Navajas lab studies cell mechanics with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Optical Magnetic Twisting Cytometry (OMTC) and particle tracking. Felix Ritort group works in theoretical and experimental single molecule studies with optical tweezers (OT). The co-direction of those two groups allows me to focus different biophysical problems with a similar set of tools such as AFM or OT.

Academic Information

  • PhD in biophysics, University of Barcelona. Thesis entitled “Contribution of active processes to the cytoskeleton dynamics of living cells”. Maximum available qualification obtained
  • B.S. in physics, University of Barcelona (September 98 - January 03)

Skills

  • Research experience and capability in the fields of cell biophysics and nanotechnology
  • Solid experience in AFM, OMTC, traction microscopy, confocal microscopy, cell micropatterning, cell culture, fluorescence microscopy
  • Excelent programming level of MATLAB and LabView
  • Experience in the writing of scientific manuscripts and grants
  • Teaching experience at B. S. level

Developed Software: MOC.vi

Play LabView

During my PhD I have developed a LabView program to control the Optical Magnetic Twisting Cytometry (OMTC) set up. The software can be easily installed to any computer with LabView program. The software is open and compatible with any FireWire camera such as Orca (Hamamatsu), Pike (Allied Vision Technologies), etc.

Publications

  1. Sunyer R., Ritort F., Farré R., Navajas D. Nonequilibrium and heterogeneity of the cytoskeleton remodeling dynamics (PNAS submitted)
  2. Sunyer R., Trepat X., Farré R., and Navajas D. Temperature dependence of cell rheology measured by AFM (Manuscript in preparation)
  3. Sunyer R., Ritort F. and Navajas D. Probing the frequency dependence of living cells rheology by Atomic Force Microscopy with a multi-frequency method (Manuscript in preparation)
  4. Roca-Cusachs P., Alcaraz J., Sunyer R., Samitier J., Farré R. and and Navajas D. Micropatterning of single endothelial cell shape reveals a tight coupling between nuclear volume in G1 and proliferation. Biophysical Journal, 94: 4984-4995, 2008
  5. Gavara N., Roca-Cusachs P., Sunyer R., Farré R., and Navajas D. Mapping cell matrix stresses during stretch reveals inelastic reorganization of the cytoskeleton. Biophysical Journal. In press, 2008
  6. Rico F., Roca-Cusachs P., Sunyer R., et al. Cell dynamic adhesion and elastic properties probed with cylindrical atomic force microscopy cantilever tips. Journal of Molecular Recognition, 20 (6), 459-466, 2007
  7. Gavara, N., Sunyer, R., et al., Thrombin-induced contraction in alveolar epithelial cells probed by traction microscopy. Journal of Applied Physiology, 101:512-520, 2006
  8. Roca-Cusachs P., Almendros I., Sunyer R., et al., Rheology of Passive and Adhesion-Activated Neutrophils Probed by Atomic Force Microscopy. Biophysical Journal, 91:3508-3518, 2006
  9. Elhajal, M., Canals, B., Sunyer, R., Lacroix, C. Ordering in the pyrochlore antiferromagnet due to Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interactions. Physical Review B, (71) 9, 2005

PhD Thesis

My PhD thesis was entitled "Contribution of active processes to the cytoskeleton dynamics of living cells". I defended my PhD thesis on 27 july 2008.