Jacqueline Smith
Howard University, DC·Chemistry·Early-career
Cells survive by carefully controlling what enters them and which proteins they keep or destroy. Two projects use small molecules and chemical tools to study proteins at these control points.
- Fields
Chemistry
Biochemistry
Pharmacology
- Topics
large amino acid transporter
membrane transporters
proteoliposomes
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Mar 2028
What they work on
- Build proteoliposomes, artificial membrane bubbles containing the amino acid transporter LAT1, and measure small-molecule binding to LAT1 by surface plasmon resonance (SPR).
- Develop fluorescent LAT1 substrates and use them to rapidly screen which small molecules are transported through LAT1, replacing traditional radioisotope assays.
- Characterize small molecules found by molecular docking that bind valosin-containing protein (VCP), a protein-degradation enzyme, as alternatives to unselective drugs that block its ATP-using activity.
- Determine how small-molecule binding to VCP affects cell migration through regulation of the signaling proteins p53 and NF-κB.
More about the research
One project focuses on a transporter that carries nutrients into cells. The other focuses on a protein that helps decide which proteins are broken down, a choice that affects whether unhealthy cells survive.
Why it matters
A fluorescent, non-radioactive LAT1 assay could make it faster to test which molecules this brain- and placenta-enriched transporter can carry. It could also test computer predictions about LAT1. Selective VCP-binding molecules could clarify how VCP helps unhealthy and malignant cells survive and migrate. That understanding may offer clues for future treatments of diseases involving these cells.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jeremy Driskell
Illinois State University, IL·Chemistry
Determine how nanobody charge, controlled by pH, affects adsorption onto gold nanoparticles, and build a predictive model for making stable, robust nanobody-gold conjugates.
Stephanie Gates
University of Missouri-Columbia, MO·Biochemistry
Dissect how the Hsp70/CHIP/BAG-1 chaperone complex affects each step of proteasomal degradation, including ubiquitin tagging, substrate binding and breakdown, using in vitro assays with purified proteins.
Tom A Rapoport
Harvard University, MA·Biochemistry
Determine how misfolded glycoproteins, proteins carrying sugar chains, are delivered to the Hrd1 complex and moved from the ER interior across the membrane, building on cryo-electron microscopy structures.
The school
Howard University: 8 labs on PI Pages, $102M a year on research, 102 research doctorates a year.
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