About her PhD project

Skeletal muscle fibers are large multinucleated cells, which mechanically connect two skeletal elements. The contractile forces are generated by highly regular mini-machines called sarcomeres, which are organized in long periodic chains called myofibrils. How can such long and regular myofibrils form during development? Using the fly model, the Schnorrer lab developed the tension-driven self-organization hypothesis of myofibrillogenesis, which suggests that mechanical tension acts as a compass to coordinate the assembly of many sarcomeres into long myofibrils. This hypothesis needs to be tested in human muscle.