We are a research team that is trying to understand the molecular details that determine how, where, and when motor proteins transport intracellular cargo. The past thirty years of cell biology research have set the stage for us to determine the general principles that underlie the complex process of intracellular transport.
Specifically, we are interested in the mechanisms that dictate how cytoplasmic dynein and kinesin are recruited to- and activated for- cargo transport. For each project, we will be trying to answer the following questions:
How is specificity determined between motor proteins and cargo?
How are the activities of multi-motor complexes regulated?
What are the molecular consequences of neurodegenerative disease-causing mutations?
We will be approaching these questions using state of the art technologies that range from mammalian cell protein expression to cryo-EM to single molecule fluorescence assays. This integrated approach will allow us to relate how changes at the molecular level alter the structure and function of transporting motor-cargo complexes.