Our lab at MBU has an interest to carry out structural studies on membrane proteins, both to understand their mechanism and study their pharmacology.
The membrane bilayer segregates the extracellular from the intracellular constituents. However, this protective layer has to be overcome for nutrients, ions, drugs and a range of metabolites and metabolic end products to traverse, for cells to survive and respond to environmental cues. Membrane proteins such as transporters and channels carry out this indispensable role of providing selective permeability for ions, nutrients, metabolites and a host of other molecular species that otherwise lack a conduit into or out of cells.
The lab aims to study integral membrane transporters that play vital roles in neurotransmitter uptake and drug efflux using a multi-disciplinary approach involving X-ray crystallography and other biochemical and biophysical methods.
Lab news.
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