Regulating Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Notch Signaling in Live Cells via Magnetoplasmonic Nanoprobes

Notch signaling is a key cell-to-cell communication mechanism during development and in normal tissue maintenance and cancer. Signals exchanged between neighboring cells via Notch can reinforce molecular differences which eventually direct the fate decision of individual cells. Despite increasing knowledge of these signaling events, little is known about how spatiotemporal dynamics of the receptor signaling across a cell influence the signal exchange. In this presentation, we introduce an advanced nano-probing system that mimics binary cell communication via Notch, while providing systematic spatiotemporal control of Notch signaling in live cells. This new nanosystem enabled simultaneous observation of Notch dynamics and signal activation with single molecule resolution in live cells for the first time. We envision this nano-probing system as a next generation force microscopy technology platform to quantify and control force-mediated biological processes at the subcellular level.