Welcome
Our Lab strives to understand the structure, function, and regulation of specialized proteins that subserve transport across membrane barriers, including plasma membranes and intracellular compartmental membranes. We also are interested in how these proteins–channels and transporters–organize and behave within the cellular environment.
We maintain a long-standing interest in understanding in how solutes and water move across the membranes that surround many kinds of cells, and profess a particular fondness for transport proteins within epithelial cell membrane domains. In the context of organized epithelial barriers, their polarized distribution enables directional transport, a hallmark attribute of these tissues. Our lab recently focused attention on understanding transport proteins residing in the membranes that encircle the luminal space of intracellular organelles, such as endosomes and lysosomes.
Our studies embrace a variety of techniques. These include established electrophysiological assays such as open- and short-circuit current measurements in Ussing chambers and two-microelectrode voltage clamp of heterologously expressing Xenopus oocytes, as well as protein biochemical assays, molecular cloning, and site-directed mutagenesis. We enjoy learning new methods to address our questions, and are excited that our structure-function work can now be informed by computational approaches for interrogating the plethora of 3D structures available on the RCSB Protein Data Bank.
Banner shows cultured thyroid follicular epithelial cells, organized as both a confluent monolayer and as a cyst. The plane of focus is at the level of the monolayer; a single, detached cyst floats above and out of focus.
