Lateral interactions between proteins in membranes

钙粘附素是一种细胞黏附受体，在实体组织的正常发育和维持以及癌症的进展和转移过程中发挥着核心作用。尽管该领域进行了广泛的研究，但许多关于钙粘素功能和调节的问题仍然没有答案。钙粘附素之间的横向相互作用可能对生物学功能很重要，但它们还没有被详细描述，它们的生物学意义也不清楚。Ecadherin 1的侧向相互作用将被表征，并将建立Ecadherin 1缔合热力学和其黏附参数之间的关联。为了实现这一目标，将使用基于FRET的新方法来产生高实验精度的膜蛋白相互作用的能量学。这项工作将为广大科学界研究膜蛋白折叠、结构和功能提供更好的方法。最终，方法的改进将导致阐明膜蛋白相互作用在细胞生命中的作用的发现。这项工作还将促进有关调节细胞黏附的物理过程的基本知识。该项目将为研究生提供资金，并将增强在约翰·霍普金斯大学进行研究的本科生的教育经验。此外，它还将支持广泛的外联活动，使青年科学家受益，为2012年FASEB会议“膜的分子生物物理学”提供旅行奖学金。

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".