Membrane transport proteins are responsible for the transport of key molecules and transfer of information across cell membranes, events that are central to many important neurobiological processes. They are designed to selectively recognize a variety of substrates of differing sizes and physicochemical properties for cellular transport. My overarching research goals are to understand the design principles of membrane transport proteins that allow for their selective transport, to develop pharmacological tools to modulate their function, and to utilize the knowledge gained to exploit their therapeutic potentials.
Current treatments for debilitating chronic pain and itch conditions are limited. Our proposed structural, mechanistic, and pharmacological studies of neuronal membrane transport proteins will set a cornerstone for the future development of therapeutics to treat pain and/or itch-related disease conditions.
| Yin, Ying; Wu, Mengyu; Zubcevic, Lejla et al. (2018) Structure of the cold- and menthol-sensing ion channel TRPM8. Science 359:237-241 |
| Zubcevic, Lejla; Herzik Jr, Mark A; Wu, Mengyu et al. (2018) Conformational ensemble of the human TRPV3 ion channel. Nat Commun 9:4773 |
| Yoo, Jiho; Mashalidis, Ellene H; Kuk, Alvin C Y et al. (2018) GlcNAc-1-P-transferase-tunicamycin complex structure reveals basis for inhibition of N-glycosylation. Nat Struct Mol Biol 25:217-224 |
| Yoo, Jiho; Wu, Mengyu; Yin, Ying et al. (2018) Cryo-EM structure of a mitochondrial calcium uniporter. Science 361:506-511 |
| Zubcevic, Lejla; Le, Son; Yang, Huanghe et al. (2018) Conformational plasticity in the selectivity filter of the TRPV2 ion channel. Nat Struct Mol Biol 25:405-415 |
| Hirschi, Marscha; Herzik Jr, Mark A; Wie, Jinhong et al. (2017) Cryo-electron microscopy structure of the lysosomal calcium-permeable channel TRPML3. Nature 550:411-414 |
| Hirschi, Marscha; Johnson, Zachary Lee; Lee, Seok-Yong (2017) Visualizing multistep elevator-like transitions of a nucleoside transporter. Nature 545:66-70 |
