Students are welcome to consider studying the basis of important biological and medical phenomenon in a multi-disciplinary laboratory that spans theoretical, membrane, cell, and tissue levels of biological organization.

1. We are deeply interested in how the influenza virus enters cells to infect them. In particular, we study the membrane fusion induced by the viral coat protein. Recently, we have focused on the role of membrane "rafts" as pivotal to viral entry. We are also using new pseudotyped HIV vectors we developed as a method of gene therapy.

2. We have developed a new method for culturing the parasite that causes malaria, and we are studying the membrane events in this parasite's life cycle.

3. We found that programmed cell death proceeds through the formation of a large pore in the outer mitochondrial membrane, and we are studying the structure of this pore. This has also led us to consider the effect of oxygen on the squid synapse.

4. We study the fertilization of sea urchin eggs, in Bethesda and in the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, both as a model for cell-cell fusion and as material for studying the exocytosis that accompanies fertilization. This secretory event is similar to that found in synaptic transmission. We are studying the effects of osmotic pressure and membrane stress on exocytosis.

5. We host the NASA/NIH Center for Three Dimensional Tissue Culture, which allows us to study intact and engineered tissues in their native configuration. We are studying the ways in which stem cells form tissue structures and the extent to which membrane fusion plays a role in their work to regenerate tissue. We have an ongoing project on the International Space Station in the effect of microgravity on the immune system at the cellular and tissue level.

Selected Publications: