Research Areas
Research Areas
The Center for Membrane and Cell Physiology (CMCP) integrates molecular engineering, advanced imaging, and quantitative physiology to uncover how cellular systems function across scales — and how their failure drives disease.
Our research spans fundamental mechanisms of membrane organization, dynamic visualization of living systems, and the physiological processes that underlie health and pathology.
Biological membranes organize cellular life. CMCP investigators define the molecular and physical principles that govern membrane structure, dynamics, and function — and engineer tools to manipulate these systems.
Research in this area includes:
• Membrane fusion and trafficking in neurotransmission, hormone release, and viral entry
• Lipid organization, membrane phase behavior, and dietary lipid regulation
• Ion channels, transporters, and receptor signaling
• Cytoskeletal–membrane interactions and mechanosensing
• Engineering synthetic proteins and membrane-associated biosensors
Faculty combine structural biology, quantitative biophysics, lipidomics, electrophysiology, reconstituted membrane systems, and protein engineering to understand how membranes coordinate communication, transport, and energy flow. These mechanistic insights inform strategies to modulate membrane processes in infection, metabolic disease, neurobiology, and cancer.
A defining strength of CMCP is the ability to visualize biological systems across scales — from macromolecular assemblies to whole organisms.
Our faculty develop and apply advanced imaging approaches to capture dynamic biological processes in their native context, including:
• Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and cryo–correlative light and electron microscopy (cryo-CLEM)
• Super-resolution and quantitative live-cell microscopy
• Fluorescent and bioluminescent biosensors for metabolic and signaling events
• Single-particle tracking, FRAP, and nanoscale dynamics analysis
• In vivo imaging in animal models
By integrating imaging with computational analysis and molecular engineering, CMCP researchers bridge structure and function, revealing how molecular interactions scale to cellular organization and tissue physiology.
CMCP research connects molecular mechanisms to organismal physiology and human disease. Investigators examine how membrane-associated processes regulate essential biological functions and how their dysregulation contributes to pathology.
Major areas of focus include:
• Viral entry and host–pathogen interactions
• Neurotransmitter and hormone secretion
• Chromosome segregation and genome stability
• Autophagy and proteostasis
• Metabolic regulation and cellular stress responses
• Vascular signaling and inflammatory pathways
• iPSC-based models of neurodegenerative disease
• Focused ultrasound strategies to modulate membrane permeability and enhance targeted cancer therapy
Using genetic models, human iPSC-derived neurons and organoids, quantitative imaging, biochemical reconstitution, functional genomics, and systems-level analysis, faculty define how cellular organization maintains physiological balance — and how its breakdown leads to infectious disease, neurodegeneration, metabolic disorders, cancer, and cardiovascular dysfunction. In parallel, investigators develop translational strategies that harness membrane biology to enable precision diagnostics and therapeutic interventions.