Conformational Surveillance of signalling proteins in the plasma membrane

The plasma membrane is a boundary between a cell (the building block of our bodies) and the outside world. Important information (molecules) must cross this boundary, and they do so via proteins that are embedded within the plasma membrane. Defects in the function of these proteins cause human disease, so their activity must be strictly controlled. To allow molecules to cross, these proteins undergo a change in shape, or "conformation". I have discovered that a pair of molecular scissors (called intramembrane proteases) recognise this conformational change and cut these proteins in half to turn them off. I intend to discover how this process occurs and its importance to humans and disease. For instance, we do not know which proteins some intramembrane proteases cut, especially those enriched in brain cells. Therefore, I aim to find the proteins that these intramembrane proteases cut, ultimately to reveal their importance in the brain.