Contact
Dr. Manfred Lindau
5041 Rosenstiel Medical Sciences BuildingDept. of Physiology and Biophysics
University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine
1600 NW 10th Avenue
Miami, FL 33136
We are looking for talented Post-Docs and Graduate Students for a combination of experimental and computational projects.
The long term vision of our research is to generate a detailed understanding of docking, priming, and fusion on the nanomechanical scale, generating molecular movies that show the actual structural dynamics beyond the description in the form of cartoons, as visualized in our MD movie of fusion pore formation https://www.pnas.org/content/115/50/12751/tab-figures-data. We expect strong interest to investigate membrane fusion using electrophysiological, electrochemical and advanced fluorescence imaging techniques.
Investigate the mechanistic role of SNAREs and accessory proteins in the dynamics of vesicle docking, priming and fusion.
Using the following approaches
Combined amperometry using microfabricated electrochemical detector (ECD) arrays and total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) imaging to study the molecular events of fusion and transmitter release in chromaffin cells.
Patch clamp capacitance measurements to investigate the functional performance of fluorescently labeled proteins and otherwise modified proteins involved in vesicle priming and fusion in knock-out mouse embryonal chromaffin cells.
Combining microfabricated electrochemical detector (ECD) arrays, with reconstituted supported membranes to study fusion of isolated chromaffin granules simultaneously by amperometry and total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) imaging.
Performing Molecular Dynamics simulations of the SNARE complex and accessory proteins to elucidate the changes in protein interactions and conformations leading to vesicle fusion.
Skills to bring or to learn in our lab:
- Cell preparation and cell culture
- Molecular Biology
- Whole cell patch clamp
- Subcellular fractionation
- Microfabrication in clean room facility
- TIRF microscopy
- Computer Image analysis
- Electrochemical sensing
- MD simulations using GROMACS
- Coarse grained simulations using MARTINI force field
- Atomistic simulations using GROMOS96
- Simulations of membrane self assembly
Please send your application with names of 2 or 3 references to Dr. Manfred Lindau <MXL2044@med.miami.edu>