Principal Investigator Gabriela Schlau-Cohen
Project Website http://www.schlaucohenlab.com/model-membranes/
Membrane proteins are ubiquitous in biology; 30% of the genes in most genomes encode membrane proteins and 60% of drug targets are membrane proteins. However, they are a notoriously challenging class of proteins to study due to the difficulty of maintaining a physiologically-relevant environment while conducting experiments. We meet this challenge by constructing well-controlled model membrane-protein systems that mimic physiological environments. Membrane proteins are key to biological processes and, because they are so poorly understood, are often at the heart of unanswered questions.