Cells sense their changing environments through signaling pathways that are assembled by the interactions between proteins. These signaling pathways are dynamic, depending on both the formation and disassembly of protein complexes, and cellular architecture plays a critical role in controlling this process. The contributions of cell architecture, however, are lost during traditional biochemical analysis.
A major challenge facing biomedical research is to determine the mechanisms that control the assembly of regulatory protein complexes in their natural environment inside the cell, and to understand how disease processes affect these activities. This information will be critical to unraveling the basis of disease, and to the design of therapeutic strategies.
Our laboratory has focused on defining how the structural organization within the nucleus functions to control of pituitary endocrine cell gene expression. We are using biochemical and molecular analysis in combination with the microscopic imaging of living cells to define how networks of protein interactions orchestrate cell-specific gene expression. The results of our studies are showing how disease-causing mutations can disrupt networks of protein interactions in the cell nucleus, and these results have broad implications for many human diseases.
Prospective Graduate Students should visit the Graduate Division web site at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Graduate Program web site for the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology.
Post-doctoral applicants please follow this link for more information.
Contact Us:
Richard N. Day, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Cellular & Integrative Physiology
Indiana University School of Medicine
Phone: (317) 274-2166 (office)
Email: rnday@iupui.edu
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Mailing Address:
635 Barnhill Drive, MS 333
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Find us:
The laboratory is located on the 3rd floor of the Van Nuys Medical Science Building (map MS) in the Department of Cellular & Integrative Physiology.
