Molecular Cell Biology of Post-Golgi Membrane Traffic Pathways

人类和动物是由数百万个细胞组成的。这些细胞都被一层叫做质膜的膜包围着，质膜是由磷脂（一种脂肪）、胆固醇和蛋白质组成的。每个细胞与其他细胞交流、感知环境和接受营养的方式都取决于质膜的功能。质膜的蛋白质和磷脂在细胞内的特殊细胞器（每个细胞内的小器官）中产生和降解，它们被磷脂、胆固醇和蛋白质组成的膜所包围。在制造质膜蛋白质的最后阶段，一个特别重要的细胞器是高尔基复合体。在它们的降解过程中一个重要的细胞器是溶酶体。所有这些膜之间的相互作用对单个细胞的正常功能至关重要。相互作用是通过膜交通发生的，小囊泡，再次被膜包围，从供体细胞器（或质膜）出芽，并向受体细胞器行进。我们的目标是了解这种囊泡贩运的分子机制。我们正专注于了解膜运输系统的机制如何导致单个蛋白质被运送到特定的细胞内位点，以及进出溶酶体的运输是如何发生的。从长远来看，我们的工作将有助于理解许多疾病，包括糖尿病、动脉粥样硬化和神经退行性疾病等疾病，这些疾病发生在细胞表面和/或膜交通中，以及微生物破坏膜交通系统以感染细胞的传染病。它还将有助于开发更好的方法，使药物靶向细胞内的特定部位，从而使药物治疗可能比目前更有针对性。

Humans and animals are made up of millions of cells. Each of these cells is surrounded by a membrane called the plasma membrane made of phospholipids (a type of fat), cholesterol and proteins. The ways in which each cell communicates with other cells, senses its environment and receives nutrition are dependent on the functions of the plasma membrane. The proteins and phospholipids of the plasma membrane are made and degraded inside the cell in specialised organelles (little organs found within each cell) themselves surrounded by membranes also made of phospholipids, cholesterol and proteins. A particularly important organelle involved in the final stages of making the proteins of the plasma membrane is the Golgi complex. An important organelle in their degradation is the lysosome. Interaction between all of these membranes is essential to the correct function of an individual cell. Interaction occurs by membrane traffic, with little vesicles, again each surrounded by a membrane, budding from a donor organelle (or the plasma membrane) and travelling to an acceptor organelle. We aim to understand the molecular mechanisms of this vesicular trafficking. We are concentrating on understanding how the machinery of the membrane traffic system results in individual proteins being delivered to particular intracellular sites and how traffic to and from the lysosome occurs. In the long term our work will contribute to the understanding of many diseases, including diseases such as diabetes, atherosclerosis and neurodegenerative diseases, where defects in the cell surface and/or in membrane traffic occur and infectious diseases where microbes subvert the membrane traffic system in order to infect cells. It will also contribute to developing better ways of targeting drugs to particular sites within cells so that drug therapies may be more specific than at present.