Medical College of Georgia
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Administration
Department of The Graduate School
Vice Chair, Pharmacology and Toxicology
In addition to training future scientists at the bench I am involved in teaching pharmacological principles to medical and graduate students in the classroom, and case-based learning to medical students in small groups.
My lab’s long-term objective is to understand how G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), heterotrimeric G proteins and other signaling proteins interact, and how these proteins are organized in specialized cells to produce physiological responses. Much of what we do requires the development of optical tools for imaging and spectroscopy in living cells, often taking advantage of rapid advances in structural biology, protein engineering and chemical biology. As specific examples, we engineered a resonance energy transfer (FRET and BRET) sensor to detect G protein activation (free Gbg subunits) in living cells, chemical and physical methods to immobilize and trap GPCRs in artificial microdomains on the cell surface, and a BRET method to monitor the subcellular trafficking of membrane proteins in real time. We have used these tools to gain insights into the process of receptor-G protein coupling and preassembly, G protein heterotrimer dissociation, the regulation of signaling kinetics by RGS proteins, and the quaternary structure of GPCRs. These methods have also been successfully adopted by many other labs.
