Research Interests: My research effort will be dedicated to investigating the physiological function of a unique bifunctional ion channel TRPM7, which our most recent studies indicate is involved in cell motility. TRPM7 is a ubiquitously expressed calcium-permeant ion channel that is fused to a protein kinase. It is a member of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family with greatest homology to the putative tumor-suppressor melastatin. Cell motility and adhesion are critical to a broad array of physiological processes, such as the ability of leukocytes to home during the inflammatory response, the processes of blood clotting by platelets, neural crest cell migration and axon migration. TRPM7’s ubiquitous expression makes it a potential participant in all these cellular processes. This laboratory will use a multi-disciplinary approach to study the function of this unusual macromolecule. Among the many tools our laboratory will employ are confocal microscopy, electrophysiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology.

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