Faculty
Primary Faculty
Mitochondrial phospholipid metabolism in health and disease.
Zinc transporters: biochemistry, biophysics and cell biology
Genetic diseases resulting in defective ion channels.
Regulatory pathways that control adaptive metabolic responses in adipose and skeletal muscle tissues.
Human copper homeostasis: biochemical mechanisms of transport and compartmentalization of metal ions, the role of copper in lipid metabolism and cell differentiation, developing new approaches for treatment of human disorders of copper misbalance.
Renal physiology; the role of sensory receptors in regulating renal function; localizing renal olfactory receptors and identifying their ligands in order to understand the role of each receptor in whole-animal physiology.
Mechanisms of osmotic regulation in physiology and disease.
Ion transporters in human health and disease. Calcium signaling in lactation and breast cancer. New roles for endosomal Na+/H+ exchangers in pH regulation, trafficking, and sodium homeostasis and their contribution to hypertension, autism and glioblastoma.
Down syndrome, animal models to clinical trials.
Metabolic physiology of secreted hormones.
Molecular dynamics simulations of large conformational changes involved with function; Biophysics of membrane proteins, signaling networks, drug design, and allostery; Relative free energy calculations, estimates of entropy:enthalpy compensation, and insights into structure:function connections
Secondary Faculty
Cardiac arrhythmia; CaM kinase II; the role of the enzyme CaMKII (Ca2+/calmodulin dependent kinase II) in heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias, a cause of sudden cardiac death.
Molecular mechanisms of neuronal death and survival; cell death and cell survival signaling pathways in models of stroke, and Parkinson's disease
Molecular physiology of intestinal Na absorption and its regulation.
Structure, function, regulation and interfacial enzymology of lipid metabolizing enzymes involved in signal transduction cascades; biochemistry and chemistry of lipids and lipid metabolizing enzymes involved in signaling cascades.
Mechanisms underlying the development of infertility associated with obesity; gonadal steroid hormone feedback regulation of neuroendocrine function; development of the hypothalamic GnRH neuron.
How does androgen and insulin through their receptors induce metabolic dysfunction and infertility?