Determining the role of yeast rhomboid-2 in membrane trafficking

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Rhomboids are the most highly conserved protein family.  Indeed, almost every organism on Earth has a rhomboid protein inside it.  Rhomboids are proteases, that is they can cut other proteins into smaller pieces.  This is a powerful tool the cell uses to alter its biology.  Understanding the role of proteases in health and disease is critical, as proteases make extremely good drug targets, thanks to the fact that small molecules can be designed to control their activity.  Many diseases are caused by proteases cutting things they shouldn't, so stopping them with a drug that inhibits their activity is the basis for many novel therapeutics.  We are proposing to figure out what one class of rhomboid proteases do.  This class of rhomboids appear to act in controlling the organization of the inside of the cell.  In order to determine its function, we will use the very powerful model organism yeast, the same yeast that makes our bread.  We expect that determining the function of this family of Rhomboid proteases will uncover molecular mechanisms behind the plethera of diseases that are caused by disruption of the intracellular networks.