Dr. Seán Murray
Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
Department of Systems and Synthetic Microbiology
Karl-von-Frisch-Straße 16
35043 Marburg
+49-6421 28 21615
sean.murray@synmikro.uni-marburg.de
Research Area
The Murray group studies the mechanisms of spatial organization within bacteria. We use both dry lab (mathematical modelling, stochastic simulations, image analysis) and wet lab (genetics, high-throughput microscopy, microfluidics) techniques to uncover how proteins and DNA are spatial (self-)organised within cells. Topics include the cell-cycle dependent spatial organization of the bacterial chromosome, the formation, localization and dynamics of sub-cellular proteins cluster and the theoretical underpinning of pattern formation in general.
Expertise
theoretical biology
biophysics
mathematical modelling
self-organization
pattern formation
regulatory networks
bacterial cell biology
chromosome biology
microfluidics
image analysis
Recent Publications
1. Hofmann A, Mäkelä J, Sherratt D, Heermann D, Murray SM (2019) Self-organised segregation of bacterial chromosomal origins. eLife 8: e46564
2. Guzzo M, Murray SM, Martineau E, Lhospice S, Baronian G, My L, Zhang Y, Espinosa L, Vincentelli R, Bratton B, Shaevitz J, Molle V, Howard M, Mignot T (2018) A gated relaxation oscillator mediated by FrzX controls morphogenetic movements in Myxococcus xanthus. Nature Microbiology 3: 948-959
3. Murray SM, Sourjik V (2017) Self-organisation and positioning of bacterial protein clusters. Nature Physics 13: 1006-1013
© 2016