John Fricks
Penn State University
Multiple Scales in Molecular Motor Models
Molecular motors, such as kinesin and dynein, carry cargos through a
cell along a microtubule network. The heads of these motors step along
a microtubule and are on the order of nanometers, while the cargo can be
on the order of hundreds of nanometers. In addition, multiple motors
may be connected to a single cargo. In this talk, we will discuss the
application of semi-Markov models to link the actions of the heads to
the stepping of the motor. In addition, we analyze multiple motors
combined with the cargo across relevant temporal and spatial scales by
performing a dimensional analysis and applying relevant averaging theorems.