Postdoctoral Fellow Profile

Research Description

1. Myosin Va is a processive motor protein that moves along actin, taking many steps without dissociating. Melanophilin is a cargo adapter protein that links melanosomes to myosin Va for transport along actin. In the absence of cargo, full length myoVa is in equilibrium between a folded, inactive and an extended, active conformation. Cargo binding has been suggested to activate myosin Va for transport. I use single molecule TIRF assays to understand how cargo and cargo adapter proteins like melanophilin affect myosin Va motor characteristics.

2. Mutations in actin are among those responsible for several types of diseases, including a condition called familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection (TAAD). TAAD leads to instability in the aortic vessel which can result in sudden life threatening ruptures. To understand the underlying causes for blood vessel instability a large collaborative project in the lab studies the polymer biophysics of the actin mutants involved in this disease. I am interested in the changes in actin filament flexibility that are associated with mutations that lead to TAAD.