RESEARCH
Physiology of Mitochondrial Calcium Transport
One of the primary focus areas in the lab is the molecular physiology of mitochondrial calcium transport, specifically via Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter (MCU) and other newly discovered membrane transporters.
MCU is macromolecular channel complex composed of a pore-forming MCU subunit, an essential MCU subunit called EMRE and several EF-hands domain containing MICU1–3 subunits.
We aim to answer: how these molecular machines work, how their dysregulation lead to human disease, and how can we target their gating mechanisms to design therapeutics?
Mitochondrial Abnormalities and Organismal Physiology
We are interested in how organisms adapt to defects in mitochondrial functions like inborn errors in metabolism, bioenergetics, and defects in membrane excitability.
A deeper understanding of these abnormalities and associated organismal adaptations will reveal fundamental signal transduction mechanisms that can be exploited for targeted therapeutics.