Molecular Physiology

Understanding how proteins get from point A to point B is top of mind for Stephanie Wankowicz, assistant professor of molecular physiology and biophysics and principal investigator at the Wankowicz lab. She conducts research on how entropy, a measure of the tendency toward disorder or randomness within a system, shifts when a protein binds to a drug or another protein. Now, her work is being shared through the diffUSE project, a new multi-institutional collaboration focused on reshaping the future of structural biology by moving beyond traditional “snapshot” views of proteins to reveal their full dynamic motions. Read More

The lab of Antentor O. Hinton Jr., assistant professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, came together with collaborators from across Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the U.S., and Brazil to determine the differences in the 3D morphology of mitochondria and their cristae in brown adipose tissue. Read More

Led by Terunaga Nakagawa, an international collaboration describes for the first time the fundamental mechanism underpinning cellular processes that lead to learning and memory. Read More