Cell Biology Research
Nearly every major process in a cell is dominated by assemblies of several protein molecules. As it carries out its biological functions, each of these protein assemblies interacts with several others large complexes of proteins. The cell can be viewed as a factory that contains a complicated network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines. These machines are not randomly distributed in the cell, but are associated with various cellular structures, such as membrane organelles, cytoskeleton and nucleus. Cell biology is an integrated discipline that studies the dynamic distribution of molecules and molecular complexes in the cellular compartments. The faculty in this department is involved in the elucidation of both the compartmentalization of various signal transduction processes and of the mechanisms by which specific targeting of molecules and molecular machines to cellular compartments is controlled.
Primary Faculty
Dell'Acqua, Mark L. Organization of signaling complexes by protein kinase and phosphatase anchoring proteins; mechanisms regulating neuronal second messenger signaling in synaptic plasticity
Hunter, Lawrence Computational biology, bioinformatics, gene expression array analysis, natural language processing, biomedical ontologies, machine learning
Maller, James L. Biochemistry of cell division and early development; cell cycle control; protein phosphorylation and oncogene action
Schiemann, William P. Mechanisms of TGF-β-mediated tumor suppression and tumor promotion; cloning and characterization of TFG-β-regulated signaling molecules and secretory proteins; expression proteomics and genomics, biochemistry, and cell biology
Sorkin, Alexander D. Endocytosis, intracellular trafficking and signaling of growth factor receptors, dopamine transporter, dopaminergic neurons
Secondary Faculty
Heasley, Lynn E. Investigating the role of MAP kinases and specific receptor tyrosine kinases in normal and transformed growth of lung epithelial cells using techniques of molecular and cell biology in lung epithelial cells and human lung cancer cell lines
Henson, Peter M. Inflammatory process as a paradigm of complex interacting cell networks and communication molecules and as a component of human diseases
Krushel, Leslie A. Mechanisms and regulation of protein synthesis in the nervous system with a focus on the understanding of translation in learning and memory and disease states
Nemenoff, Raphael A. Signaling pathways controlling growth and differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells; Role of eicosanoids in lung cancer
Port, J. David G-protein linked receptors and their regulation; regulation of mRNA stability