Moitrayee Bhattacharyya
Yale University, CT·Biochemistry
Cell membranes are not uniform sheets. They are divided into tiny, constantly changing nanodomains, each with its own mix of lipids (fatty molecules) and proteins.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Biophysics
Pharmacology
- Topics
membrane proteins
native nanodiscs
styrene-maleic acid copolymer
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Develop a pipeline using styrene-maleic acid copolymers to extract membrane proteins as ~10–15 nm "native nanodiscs" that keep their surrounding native lipids and partner proteins, followed by enrichment and purification.
- Determine how the oncogene KRas, a GTPase mutated in most pancreatic cancers, is organized on native membranes, using single-molecule TIRF microscopy, native mass spectrometry, and structural studies of nanodisc-embedded protein.
- Identify the lipids and proteins enriched around Trk neurotrophin receptors using lipidomics and proteomics, and test how this local environment affects receptor activity and downstream signaling with functional assays.
More about the research
These local neighborhoods help control the signaling proteins that sit in or on the membrane, and they are often disrupted in cancer, neurodegeneration, and immune disorders. However, there are few ways to study a membrane protein inside its natural lipid surroundings while tracking where it is, how it changes over time, and what it touches. This project aims to build that experimental platform.
Why it matters
Many diseases, including pancreatic cancer and pain disorders, involve membrane proteins whose behavior depends on their lipid surroundings. A general method for studying such proteins in their native membrane could reveal how KRas and Trk receptors are regulated. This knowledge could inform future approaches to cancer, neurodegeneration, immune disorders, and pain.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Joseph Falke
University of Colorado Boulder, CO·Biochemistry
Determine how Class 1 and Class 3 PI3K enzymes integrate calcium, receptor and G protein inputs, and whether these combine additively, synergistically or in opposition, using single-molecule TIRF microscopy on supported lipid bilayers.
Thorsten Schmidt
Kent State University at Kent, OH·Biophysics
Build ring-shaped DNA nanostructures that self-assemble from synthetic DNA strands and can be filled with lipids and membrane proteins, making the proteins water-soluble in a membrane-like setting.
Ruixuan Gao
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Chemistry·Early-career
Develop a tissue polymerization and expansion pipeline that anchors natural lipids to a swellable polymer gel, allowing MALDI mass spectrometry imaging of lipids at subcellular resolution on conventional instruments.
The school
Yale University: 73 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 438 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.