Investigators and Program Directors
Michael Koonce
Research Scientist, Wadsworth Center, Cellular and Molecular Basis of Diseases
Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley (1987)
Postdoctoral training, University of Colorado at Boulder
E-mail: koonce@wadsworth.org
Research Interests
Nearly all forms of macroscopic movement in eukaryotes act at the level of a single cell, and are the product of interactions between molecular motors and the cell's internal scaffold of structural proteins, appropriately named the cytoskeleton. Motor-driven processes are critical for normal cellular activities and their malfunctions are often implicated in diseases that impact public health, including neurological disorders, pathogen infection, developmental defects, and cancer. Our research program lies in understanding how these motors function and how their efforts are coordinated to produce useful cellular movement.
We focus on microtubule-based motors, the dynein and kinesin isoforms that participate in organelle transport and cell division.Our work utilizes combinations of gene knockouts, live cell imaging, and electron microscopy to investigate cell processes that are disrupted as a consequence of motor malfunction. Characterization of dynein has produced the first detailed structural models of how the motor may work and has revealed that dynein plays an important role in organizing the interphase microtubule network. Further analysis of kinesin motors has identified new functions in microtubule organization and in connecting the cell centrosome with the nucleus. Our work is performed in Dictyostelium discoideum, an outstanding model organism for cell motility studies.
Contact Information
E-mail: koonce@wadsworth.org.