Current Lab Members
Dr. Michael S. Marks
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Cornell University (BS), Duke University (PhD)
marksm@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
My lab focuses on molecular mechanisms controlling membrane trafficking and morphogenesis during the formation of lysosome-related organelles in several cell types, and how these mechanisms are disrupted in disease. For many years, my group has studied the biogenesis of melanosomes - pigment organelles in skin melanocytes and in choroid melanocytes, retinal pigment epithelia, and iris pigment epithelia in the eye, defects in which result in ocular or oculocutaneous albinism. More recently we have worked with collaborators to extend our findings on melanosomes into other systems, including the formation of dense granules in platelets (required for optimal blood clotting), the formation of lamellar bodies in lung epithelial cells (required for surfactant secretion in the lung), and the maturation of phagosomes in dendritic cells (required for innate immunity and antigen presentation in the immune system). These systems are related through their disruption in rare diseases of membrane trafficking components such as the Hermansky-Pudlak syndromes.
Dawn Harper
Research Associate, West Chester University of Pennsylvania (BS), University of Pennsylvania (MS)
sabine1913@gmail.com
My work is focused on understanding how specific proteins and protein complexes are assembled and sorted to the appropriate compartments within the late secretory and endocytic pathways, and how sorting and assembly contributes to the biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles (LROs) and the diseases resulting from malformation of LROs in specialized cells.
Yueyao Zhu
PhD Student, Lanzhou University (BS)
yueyaoz@sas.upenn.edu
I am interested in alterations in the dynamics of membrane lipids in distinct cell lineages under immune response.