In this movie, we show a fibrin network stretched using an AFM tip and then tracked using CISMM’s video spot tracker.  The distribution of fiber strains within the network is then analyzed.  The goal is to understand the influence of single fiber mechanics on the properties of entire networks.

Download the original movie here.

iMiJ.pdb: Native Chicken Fibrinogen rendered using broad illumination on the BASS (NIH 1S10RR023069-01)

CISMM is one of the primary users of the Biomedical Analysis and Simulation Supercomputer (BASS) system that was commissioned yesterday.  One of the first uses of the machine was to construct a high-resolution rendering of fibrinogen (blood clotting molecule of interest to our thrombisis collaborators Susan Lord, John Weidel, Martin Guthold, and Alisa Wolberg).  This is a prototype for the PDB rendering project in collaboration with David Banks at with the Klaus Schulten NCRR on Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics.

Here is an example of a series of fibrin networks formed between ridges of optical glue. Perhaps they formed from a sheet?

Molecularly thin fibrin sheets have been observed during experiments in our group. There is some evidence that these sheets develop into fibrin networks. Here is one image showing perhaps this exact phenomenon. A sheet is laying across ridges made of hardened optical glue. However the sheet appears to be separating into individual fibers.