Membrane traffic in the late endocytic pathway

细胞由专门的细胞器（每个细胞内的小器官）分隔，包括蛋白质在内的货物通过囊泡（小气泡被称为磷脂的脂肪物质制成的薄膜包围，并充满蛋白质）的运输在这些隔间之间移动。一些货物被细胞表面形成的囊泡吸收到细胞中，这些囊泡将货物运送到称为内体、内溶酶体和溶酶体的细胞器。溶酶体充当酶的储存器，所述酶降解从细胞表面或细胞的其他部分递送的货物。降解发生在由内体与溶酶体融合形成的内溶酶体中。我们的目标是更好地了解内溶酶体作为降解发生的隔室。我们还旨在了解组成调节，协调和实现内体和溶酶体之间膜融合所需的机制的蛋白质。存在许多疾病，其中发生细胞表面和/或膜运输至溶酶体的缺陷。这些疾病包括罕见的遗传性疾病，如溶酶体储积症和更常见的疾病，包括糖尿病、动脉粥样硬化和神经退行性疾病，以及微生物破坏膜交通系统以感染细胞的传染病。从长远来看，我们的工作将有助于开发更好的方法，将药物靶向细胞内的特定部位，以进行更特异的药物治疗。

Cells are compartmentalized by specialized organelles (little organs within each cell), and cargo including proteins is moved between these compartments by the trafficking of vesicles (little bubbles surrounded by a thin membrane made of a fatty substance called phospholipid and studded with proteins). Some of the cargo is taken up into the cells by vesicles formed at the cell surface that deliver their cargo to organelles called endosomes, endolysosomes and lysosomes. Lysosomes act as storage organelles for enzymes that degrade cargo that is delivered from the cell surface or other parts of the cell. Degradation occurs in endolysosomes formed by the fusion of endosomes with lysosomes. We aim to understand the endolysosome better as the compartment in which degradation takes place. We also aim to understand the proteins that make up the machinery necessary to regulate, coordinate and achieve membrane fusion between endosomes and lysosomes. There are many diseases in which defects in the cell surface and/or in membrane traffic to lysosomes occur. These include rare genetic diseases such as the lysosomal storage disorders and more common diseases including diabetes, atherosclerosis and neurodegenerative diseases as well as infectious diseases where microbes subvert the membrane traffic system in order to infect cells. In the long term our work will contribute to developing better ways of targeting drugs to particular sites within cells for more specific drug therapies.