Profile: Dr. Jinglei Hu completed his PhD in 2008 at Nanjing University. After post-doctoral research at the Max-Planck Institute of Colloids & Interfaces and Jülich Research Center, he returned to Nanjing University since 2015. He has been working on computational soft matter and biophysics, with particular interest in cell  dhesion and active colloids.

Abstract: Cadherins are crucial cell adhesion molecules that play a significant role in organizing cellular functions and maintaining tissue structural integrity, such as in embryonic and tissue development and tumor metastasis. These proteins achieve strong cell adhesion through two specific modes of binding: cis binding between proteins on the same cell membrane and trans binding between proteins on opposing cell membranes. The synergistic interaction between these two binding modes is widely recognized as crucial for forming stable cell adhesion zones. However, quantifying the synergistic effects between cis and trans bindings remains an experimental challenge. Using a mesoscale model of E-cadherinmediated cell adhesion, we employed large-scale replicaexchange Monte Carlo simulations to measure the free energy of cell adhesion in the presence and absence of cis binding, as well as the two-dimensional equilibrium constants of trans binding. Through theoretical calculations of thermodynamic free energy, we quantified the cooperativity between cis and trans bindings and elucidated the underlying physical mechanisms.