Lateral interactions between proteins in membranes

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Cadherins are cell adhesion receptors that play a central role in the normal development and maintenance of solid tissues and during cancer progression and metastasis. Despite extensive research in the field, many questions pertaining to cadherin function and regulation remain unanswered. The lateral interactions between cadherins are likely important for biological function, but they have not been characterized in detail and their biological implications are unclear. Ecadherin 1 lateral interactions will be characterized and will establish the correlation between Ecadherin 1 association thermodynamics and its adhesion parameters. To accomplish this goal, novel FRET-based methods will be used that yield the energetics of membrane protein interactions with high experimental precision. This work will provide the broad scientific community with better methods to study membrane protein folding, structure, and function. Ultimately, improvement in methods will lead to discoveries that elucidate the role of membrane protein interactions in cell life. This work will also advance the basic knowledge about the physical processes that regulate cell adhesion. The project will support the funding of graduate students and will enhance the educational experience of undergraduate students conducting research at Johns Hopkins University. In addition, it will support broad outreach activities benefiting young scientists by providing travel fellowships for the 2012 FASEB meeting "Molecular Biophysics of Membranes".