Faculty

Matthew C Good, Ph.D.

faculty photo
Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Department: Cell and Developmental Biology
Graduate Group Affiliations

Contact information
1151 BRB II/III
421 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: 215-573-1099
Lab: 215-573-6805
Education:
BA (Biochemistry)
University of California, Berkeley, 2003.
PhD (Biochemistry)
University of California, San Francisco, 2010.
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Description of Research Expertise

RESEARCH INTERESTS
* Temporal and spatial regulation of zygotic genome activation
* Cell size dependent gene expression
* Adaptability of intracellular structures to variation in cell size and shape
* Phase separation of intrinsically disordered proteins to form membraneless organelles
* Subcellular organization of intracellular signaling pathways
* Technology: construction of cell-like compartments, synthetic condensates, optochemical and optogenetic tools for protein regulation

KEY WORDS
cell size, organelle scaling, zygotic genome activation, size regulation, early embryo development, disordered proteins, membraneless organelles transcriptional imaging, Xenopus, zebrafish, optogenetics, synthetic cells, cell-free systems, microfluidics, drug delivery

DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCH

Our lab is interested: 1) cell size control and the downstream consequences of size dysregulation, and 2) protein self-assembly to form mesoscale structures, including membraneless organelles, the mitotic spindle and signaling complexes. We characterize early development, during which cells rapidly divide without growing, and which contains embryo-specific condensates such as germ granules. Further we investigate diseased cell states, including lung adenocarcinoma, in which cell size homeostasis is lost. To biophysically characterize the principles of protein condensates to form membraneless organelles we use modeling and biochemical reconstitution.

We use interdisciplinary approaches to address fundamental questions in cell and developmental biology. Further we develop new tools and techniques to probe and mechanistically dissect cellular processes. Our toolkit includes imaging and sequence the nascent transcriptome during embryo development, engineered proteins that form synthetic membraneless organelles, microfluidic approaches to encapsulate proteins construction of cell-like compartments for lipid alternatives. Additionally, we have developed optochemical and optogenetic strategies to control protein localization and enzymatic activity ex vivo and within cells. Our model systems include: zebrafish and Xenopus cleavage-stage embryos, mammalian cell culture, and biomimetic synthetic cells. Our philosophy is to understand biology by building it from the bottom-up using minimal sets of components.

Selected Publications

Welles RM, Sojitra KA, Garabedian MV, Xia B, Wang W, Guan M, Regy RM, Gallagher ER, Hammer DA, Mittal J* and Good MC*: Determinants of Disordered Protein Co-Assembly Into Discrete Condensed Phases. BioRXIV 2023 Notes: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36945618/

Chen H., Good M.C.*: Nascent Transcriptome Reveals Orchestration of Zygotic Genome Activation In Early Embryogenesis. Current Biology 32: 4314-4324, October 2022.

Garabedian M.V., Wang W., Dabdoub J.B., Tong M., Caldwell R.M., Benman W., Schuster B.S., Deiters A., Good M.C.*: Designer Membraneless Organelles Sequester Native Factors for Control of Cell Behavior. Nature Chemical Biology 17: 998-1007, Sep 2021 Notes: DOI: 10.1038/s41589-021-00840-4

Garabedian M.V., Su Z., Dabdoub J.B., Tong, M., Deiters A., Hammer D.A., Good M.C.*: Protein Condensate Formation via Controlled Multimerization of Intrinsically Disordered Sequences. Biochemistry August 2022 Notes: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.2c00250.

Bermudez J.G., Deiters A., Good M.C.*: Patterning Microtubule Network Organization Reshapes Cell-Like Compartments. ACS Synthetic Biology 10: 1338-1350 May 2021 Notes: doi: 10.1021/acssynbio.0c00575.

Schuster B.S., Dignon G.L., Tang W.S., Kelley F.M., Ranganath A.K., Jahnke C.N., Simpkins A.G., Regy R.M., Hammer D.A., Good M.C., Mittal J. : Identifying Sequence Perturbations to an Intrinsically Disordered Protein that Determine Its Phase Separation Behavior. PNAS 117(21): 11421-11431, May 2020.

Reed E.H., Schuster B.S., Good M.C., Hammer D.A: SPLIT: Stable Protein Coacervation Using a Light Induced Transition. ACS Synthetic Biology 9: 500-507, Mar 2020.

Li, S., Xia, B., Javed, B., Hasley, W.D., Melendez-Davila, A., Liu, M., Kerzner, M., Agarwal, S., Xiao, Q., Torre, P., Bermudez, J.G., Rahimi, K., Kostina, N.Y., Möller, M., Rodriguez-Emmenegger,C., Klein, M.L., Percec, V. and Good, M.C.* : Direct Visualization of Vesicle Disassembly and Reassembly Using Photocleavable Dendrimers Elucidates Cargo Release Mechanisms. ACS Nano 14: 7398-7411 May 2020.

Chen H., Einstein, L., Little S., Good M.C.*: Spatiotemporal Patterning of Zygotic Genome Activation in A Model Vertebrate Embryo. Developmental Cell 49(6): 852-866, June 2019.

Schuster B.S., Reed E.H., Parthasarathy R., Jahnke C.N., Caldwell R.M., Bermudez J.G., Ramage H., Good M.C.*, Hammer D.A.*: Controllable Protein Phase Separation and Modular Recruitment to Form Responsive, Membraneless Organelles. Nature Communications 9(1): 2985, July 2018.

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Last updated: 10/11/2023
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