(4mo) How the Glycocalyx Regulates Membrane Organization and Function

My long-term goal is to become an independent investigator and operate a research group integrating physical principles and quantitative approaches to investigate biological questions relevant to human health and disease. My training to-date has given me a firm foundation in a breadth of research areas and specific expertise in two areas: (1) glycobiology with a focus on the structure of the cellular glycocalyx and the functional role of glycoproteins, especially mucins and (2) membrane biology and biophysics with a focus on the lateral organization of the membrane into functional nanodomains. In my future research, I intended to integrate these two areas of expertise by focusing my independent research program on the coupling between protein organization induced by membrane nanodomain formation and glycan-mediated interactions of the glycocalyx.

As a graduate student at Cornell University, my research in Dr. Matthew Paszek’s laboratory focused on the role of the cellular glycocalyx as a biomaterial coating on the cell surface. I constructed new, synthetic, genetically-encoded mucin-mimetics to enable studies of the cancer-cell glycocalyx, resulting in my first publication showing the dramatic effects of the mucinous glycocalyx on cellular phenotype. Subsequently, I initiated two different biotechnology projects – one for facilitated biomanufacturing and one for recombinant therapeutic protein production – resulting in patentable technologies. This work culminated in a major publication in Cell, revealing the physical mechanism by which membrane-tethered flexible glycoprotein polymers drive membrane tubulation in live cells. During 2018-2019, through a collaboration in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Friedl at MD Anderson, I gained training and generated preliminary data on the effect of the glycocalyx on cancer metastasis using in vitro migration assays and in vivo multi-photon imaging. Altogether, I received awards acknowledging the quality of my work, as well as several individual fellowships, and I contributed to multiple manuscripts, four as primary author.

Through my postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Ilya Levental, I have expanded my area of expertise to include the study of cellular membrane composition, the associated biophysical properties, and the impact of these on protein organization and trafficking. My research has focused on identifying distinct, quantitative lipidomes for the apical and basolateral plasma membranes of polarized epithelial cells. Specifically, I identified a higher concentration of domain forming lipid species in the apical plasma membrane compartment. I have also characterized the associated biophysical properties of these two plasma membrane compartments, and found a correlation between protein affinity for lipid domains and their sorting between plasma membrane compartments. This work has been funded by my F32/NRSA postdoctoral fellowship award from NIGMS. Additionally, I have contributed to two manuscripts. The first pertains to the trafficking rate of lipid domain-preferring versus domain-excluded transmembrane proteins. The second identifies a key role for lipid nanodomains in the endosomal recycling pathway.

Teaching Interests

In my career so far, I have greatly enjoyed every opportunity to engage with junior students from one-on-one mentoring to both small and large classroom settings. One-on-one mentoring has taught me to foster independence and initiative in trainees. In classroom settings, I have learned the importance of engaging each student even in a large audience. Having worked with students from a range of academic backgrounds, I believe that chemical engineering students are well suited to solve problems at the nexus of biology, physics, and mathematics due to their rigorous course loads and training in problem solving. I look forward to more opportunities to engage with students in future teaching roles. I am interested in teaching traditional chemical engineering curriculum, especially reaction engineering, process control, and heat and mass transfer at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. I am particularly enthusiastic about developing new graduate level coursework focused on the physical principles which organize life at the cellular and molecular level.