Thomas O'Halloran
Michigan State University, MI·Biochemistry
Zinc was long thought of as a fixed part of proteins, holding their shape or helping enzymes work. Recent studies show that zinc levels inside cells rise and fall in programmed bursts, or fluxes.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Chemistry
Biophysics
- Topics
zinc
metalloproteins
metal ion receptors
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2026
What they work on
- Test whether programmed zinc fluxes control progression of the mammalian cell cycle through specific zinc-receptor proteins whose metal-binding sites switch on and off with zinc availability.
- Develop chemical tools that probe and control intracellular zinc concentration to track how zinc moves into and out of cells during the cell cycle.
- Use X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy, NMR and mass spectrometry to define zinc's chemical environment and measure how much zinc is bound to cell-cycle regulatory proteins.
More about the research
These fluxes help control brain cell function, immune responses, fertilization and insulin release. Still, the chemistry of how cells read these zinc signals is poorly understood, which makes it hard to understand diseases that disrupt them.
Why it matters
Defining how zinc-sensing proteins control cell growth and division could provide the basic knowledge needed to understand, and eventually treat, diseases in which zinc signaling breaks down. The new chemical probes and spectroscopy methods developed here could also help other researchers measure zinc in physiology, such as insulin secretion, immunity and fertilization.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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The school
Michigan State University: 28 labs on PI Pages, $932M a year on research, 555 research doctorates a year.
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