Julia Von Blume
Yale University, CT·Biology
Cells must ship many proteins to the outside, and they use two routes. Regulated secretion stores proteins such as hormones and releases them on cue, as when adrenal cells release adrenaline under stress.
- Fields
Biology
Biochemistry
Biophysics
- Topics
protein secretion
trans-Golgi Network
Golgi apparatus
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2028
What they work on
- Define the molecular requirements for chromogranins and Cab45 to form liquid condensates by liquid-liquid phase separation, using reconstituted systems that mimic the chemical environment inside the trans-Golgi Network.
- Determine how chromogranin and Cab45 condensates recognize and capture specific client proteins for sorting into regulated or constitutive secretion.
- Test whether and how these condensates associate with the inner membrane leaflet of the TGN and drive vesicle formation, using model membranes.
- Validate the in-vitro sorting mechanisms in living cells, using PC12 cells for regulated secretion and skin fibroblasts for constitutive secretion.
More about the research
Constitutive secretion sends proteins out continuously, such as the extracellular matrix proteins that hold tissues together. The sorting decision happens in the trans-Golgi Network (TGN), the cell's packaging and dispatch center. How the TGN recognizes which proteins go where is still unknown, because no shared sorting signals or receptors have been found.
Why it matters
Defects in protein secretion are linked to diseases such as psychiatric disorders and cancer. By explaining how the trans-Golgi Network sorts secreted proteins through liquid-like condensates, this basic work could help researchers understand what goes wrong in these conditions. It may eventually inform studies of disorders involving hormone release or extracellular matrix production.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Joachim Seemann
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Biology
Identify and characterize the RNA–golgin scaffolds that link Golgi stacks into a ribbon, focusing on how the golgin GM130 recruits RNA to Golgi membranes, using biochemical and microscopy approaches.
Lin Guo
Thomas Jefferson University, PA·Biochemistry
Determine how the nuclear import receptor Kapβ2 engages and chaperones newly found partner proteins that lack a nuclear localization signal, using cryo-electron microscopy to solve their structures.
Atul Parikh
University of California-Davis, CA·Biophysics
Quantify how liquid droplets coarsen, growing and merging over time, during liquid-liquid phase separation confined inside giant vesicles, using fluorescence microscopy and quantitative image analysis.
The school
Yale University: 73 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 438 research doctorates a year.
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