Microtubules are extended biological nanotubes that are critical for maintaining cell integrity and controlling cell division. Time-resolved crystallography has shown that electric fields may drive functionally relevant conformational changes in proteins, and the growth kinetics of microtubules show non-thermal effects when exposed to microwaves.
The project aims to further investigate these phenomena by applying electric fields of increasing amplitude and alternating frequencies to a solution of microtubules. Changes to the microtubules structure, stability, and assembly/disassembly kinetics shall be investigated using preliminarily spectrophotometer and XFEL based approaches.
This work will be carried out in collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology in order to safely and adequately make use of high voltage electric fields.