Summary
My interests focus on molecular organization in human health and disease. With a billion proteins packed into a cell, cross-talk and non-specific interactions should dominate. However, cells have evolved subcellular organizational strategies to overcome this. Two crucial strategies are protein complexes and subcellular localization.
How do protein complexes and subcellular localization control important cell signaling?
How do mutations that disrupt this organization cause disease?
Our current efforts are working to understand the molecular events that underlie stress hormone production by the adrenal glands and how mutations to protein kinase A (PKA) drive stress hormone overproduction and tumor growth. Another major project in the lab is investigating the neural functions of a PKA-anchoring protein associated with psychiatric disease. Commonly used techniques include DNA cloning, cell culture, and cell-based biochemistry, as well as live-cell fluorescent imaging, proximity proteomics, and CRISPR gene-editing. Ultimately, we intend to reveal cellular and molecular mechanisms governing vital physiology and to identify new strategies to ameliorate and prevent human disease.
