Pre-Doctoral Awardees

Haleh Alimohamadi

Project Title: Membrane, cytoskeleton, and membrane proteins as the triumvirate of erythrocyte shape regulation

We first derived general formulae for the calculation of normal and tangential tractions along a membrane using biophysical approaches. Next, we applied our model to various observed erythrocyte shapes. As a result, we predict that the different input-output relationships for membrane curvature generation are connected by the normal and tangential tractions along the membrane.

Mentors: Drs. Padmini Rangamani and Velia Fowler, UC San Diego

Post-Doctoral Awardees

Matthias Haberl

Project Title: Regulation of calcium dynamics due to intracellular ultrastructure: insights from high resolution reconstruction and computational modeling

Neurons form complex networks, which communicate through electrical activity. The ER is critical for the regulation of intracellular calcium, and its limiting membrane is enriched in Ca channels (IP3-activated and Ca-activated (aka., ryanodine receptors), which in concert with Ca pumps, binding proteins and plasma membrane channels, modulate the spatiotemporal dynamics of calcium signaling. In this project, we are developing and applying cutting-edge computational tools to study the intracellular structural components of neurons supporting the physiology of neuronal activation and adaptive re-organization events involved in memory formation.

Mentors: Drs. Mark Ellisman and Brenda Bloodgood, UC San Diego

Jamie Schiffer

Project Title: Dynamics and targeting of the IKK signalosome through integration of theory and experiment

Mentors: Drs. Rommie Amaro and Gouri Ghosh, UC San Diego