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Sarah Hitchcock-DeGregori
Professor
UMDNJ
Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Room 331
Piscataway. NJ 08854
(732) 235-4528
FAX - 4029
hitchcoc@umdnj.edu |
Actin cytoskeleton. coiled coils. protein structure. protein structure-function
relationships. contractile and motile function
Molecular mechanisms
of function and regulation of the actin cytoskeleton
The actin
cytoskeleton underlies nearly every fundamental cellular activity
including determination and maintenance of cell shape. intracellular
architecture and tissue formation. transport of organelles within the
cell and movement of the cells themselves. as well as intracellular and
cellular signaling. Long-standing. and continuing biochemical and
biophysical research has come together with more recent cellular and
genetic experiments to show that tropomyosin is a major cellular
regulator of actin filament stability and binding of other proteins to
actin that modulate its function. Our goal is to understand the
molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of actin filament
contractile and motile function. Research projects range from
biophysics and biochemistry to cell biology: Current work includes (1)
determination of structures of functional fragments of tropomyosin and
tropomyosin binding proteins at atomic resolution using heteronuclear
NMR (the work of Dr. Norma Greenfield). (2) analysis of the importance
of flexibility for function in coiled coil cytoskeletal proteins. (3)
study of the regulation of actin dynamics by proteins that bind to actin
including tropomyosin. tropomodulin. and the Arp2/3 complex. and (4)
experiments to understand the function of specific tropomyosin isoforms
in cells.
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