Description of Research Expertise

Structural Biology of the Actin Cytoskeleton

The actin cytoskeleton plays an essential role in multiple cellular functions, including cytokinesis, vesicular trafficking and the maintenance of cell shape and polarity. To accomplish these functions, the actin cytoskeleton undergoes dynamic remodeling into various forms of structural and functional networks, such as lamellipodia, filopodia, stress fibers and focal adhesions. Remodeling of the cytoskeleton is a tightly regulated process, involving hundreds of actin-binding and signaling proteins. The main focus of the research in our lab is to understand the molecular basis for how protein-protein interaction networks bring together cytoskeleton scaffolding, nucleation, elongation, and signaling proteins to accomplish specific cellular functions. Our primary research tool is protein X-ray crystallography, but we also use a host of other approaches, including mutagenesis, bio-informatics, biophysical and biochemical methods.