Current projects are led by Jim, Cathy, or run as a multi-PI collaboration:
Cell Migration: Define the cellular decision processes -- the decision modules and signaling pathways that convert extracellular matrix probing into directed cell migration. Currently funded by NIH.
Cytoplasmic Transport Mechanisms: Define the biophysical mechanisms and physical processes that transport actin monomer during network treadmilling.
Metastatic Invasion: What are the differences in the mechanosensitive structural and signaling hubs that let metastatic cells migrate and invade boundaries that normal cells do not cross? Currently funded by a grant from the Kuni Foundation.
New Imaging and Biophysics Technologies: All of the biological projects in the lab rely on the application and development of new cutting-edge approaches to make measurements that were previously impossible. Currently funded by the W.M. Keck Foundation
Our Mission: the Moleculome
mo•lec•u•lome \mə-ˈle-kyə-lohm\ The moleuculome is a characterization of reproducible molecular behaviors that give rise to a specific cellular function. This can be the dynamics of an individual molecule or the reorganization of a structure composed of one or more molecular species in time and space.