Actively maintained close appositions between organelle membranes, also known as contact sites, enable the efficient transfer of biomolecules between cellular compartments. Several such sites have been described as well as their tethering machineries. …
Stress defense and cell growth are inversely related in bulk culture analyses; however, these studies miss substantial cell-to-cell heterogeneity, thus obscuring true phenotypic relationships. Here, we devised a microfluidics system to characterize mul…
Oxidative stress is a major risk factor that causes osteocyte cell death and bone loss. Prior studies primarily focus on the function of cell surface expressed Cx43 channels. Here, we reported a new role of mitochondrial Cx43 (mtCx43) and hemichannels …
While dysregulation of adipocyte endocrine function plays a central role in obesity and its complications, the vast majority of adipokines remain uncharacterized. We employed bio-orthogonal non-canonical amino acid tagging (BONCAT) and mass spectrometr…
During cell division, the spindle generates force to move chromosomes. In mammals, microtubule bundles called kinetochore-fibers (k-fibers) attach to and segregate chromosomes. To do so, k-fibers must be robustly anchored to the dynamic spindle. We pre…
Epithelial tissues acquire their integrity and function through the apico-basal polarization of their constituent cells. Proteins of the PAR and Crumbs complexes are pivotal to epithelial polarization, but the mechanistic understanding of polarization …
Most of the components in the yeast secretory pathway have been studied, yet a high-resolution temporal timeline of their participation is lacking. Here we define the order of acquisition, lifetime, and release of critical components involved in late s…
Unbiased genetic screens implicated a number of uncharacterized genes in hearing loss, suggesting some biological processes required for auditory function remain unexplored. Loss of Kiaa1024L/Minar2, a previously understudied gene, caused deafness in m…
Nuclear architecture and functions depend on dynamic interactions between nuclear components (such as chromatin) and inner nuclear membrane (INM) proteins. Mutations in INM proteins interfering with these interactions result in disease. However, mechan…
The skeletal system contains a series of sophisticated cellular lineages arisen from the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), that determine the homeostasis of bone and bone marrow. Here we reasoned that osteocyte may exer…