"The entire cell can be viewed as a factory that contains an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines." Bruce Alberts Cell (1998)
We seek to understand the design principles of eukaryotic protein nanomachines and how they cooperate with one another to mediate complex cellular processes. We are also interested to find out defects in these nanomachines cause rare genetic diseases.
.png)
Autophagy
Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved pathway that sequesters cytoplasmic materials into a double-membrane vesicle called the "autophagosome" and d this cargo to the lysosome for breakdown. We study the molecular machinery that mediates the different steps of this important membrane trafficking and degradative pathway.
Chromatin modification
Post translational modifications to the histone proteins that form the nucleosome, the most basic unit of chromatin, is a key mechanism to regulate chromatin structure and gene expression. We study how specialized multi-protein chromatin modifying complexes select their targets and modulate local chromatin structure.
Rare Diseases
There are over 7,000 rare diseases and they collectively affect 1 in 12 Canadians. Very few if any treatments are available for the majority of rare diseases. We investigate how mutations to distinct proteins cause rare diseases. A major current focus is Vici syndrome, a multi-system disorder caused by mutation to the EPG5 autophagy factor.