Grant: Operating Grant

Cells are highly compartmentalized and proteins move between the compartments in small membrane bound transport carriers. This process, called membrane trafficking allows proteins to function at their proper cellular location. Membrane trafficking is highly regulated and alterations in the proteins that mediate and regulate membrane trafficking is a feature of many human diseases. One key class of proteins functioning in this process are Rabs, small proteins that act as switches by changing their chemical state. Rabs also regulate cell shape by controlling the actin cytoskeleton. We have identified a new class of proteins that regulate these regulators. This grant application will characterize these proteins in order to learn more about membrane trafficking and actin cytoskeleton dynamics and what goes wrong with these processes in disease.