In the past, the research on intracellular transport mainly relied on two-dimensional imaging technology, and has lacked an in-depth understanding of the real three-dimensional transport mechanics and its regulatory mechanisms within cells.

Professor Hui Li of the School of Systems Science, BNU, has been conducting research on the dynamics of biological complex systems. By developing live cell single-molecule dynamic imaging technology and quantitative analysis methods, he has systematically studied the mechanics of intracellular biomacromolecule transport: in terms of diffusion, he discovered the heterogeneity of intracellular diffusion caused by the structure of the endoplasmic reticulum[J. Am. Chem. Soc. 137, 436 (2015)], as well as quasi-two-dimensional properties of intracellular diffusion [CPL Express Letters 37, 078701 (2020)]; in terms of directional transport, he discovered the transport inside apoptotic cells[PNAS 115, 12118 (2018)], as well as directed transport of membrane-free organelles [FASEB Journal 32, 5891 (2018)].

Recently, Prof. Li collaborated with researchers Wang Pengye and Yang Mingcheng of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Based on the three-dimensional high spatiotemporal resolution tracking technology of a single particle, the current study revealed the spatiotemporal characteristics of the three-dimensional transport mechanics of intracellular vesicles, and elucidated the co-regulation mechanism of thermal fluctuations, active forces, and the collaborative regulation of different cytoskeletons on vesicle transport mechanics. The study contributes to an in-depth understanding of the biological function of vesicle transport, as well as the mechanisms by which viruses transport in cells.

The work was published in the Cell sub-journal iScience [iScience 25, 104210 (2022)], titled "Spatiotemporal Three-Dimensional Transport Dynamics of Endocytic Cargos and their Physical Regulations in Cells". The corresponding authors of the thesis are Professor Li Hui of BNU, Researcher Wang Pengye and Researcher Yang Mingcheng of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the first author is Jiang Chao, a doctoral student who has graduated from the Institute of Physics. This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Youth Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Link: https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(22)00480-1