研究蜂窝通信控制'

追踪错误折叠的蛋白质 elizabeth Allison（左）与Michelle Munyikwa '11讨论错误折叠的蛋白质团块，称为聚合体。 Munyikwa是在Allison佳博体育工作的几名William & Mary学生之一。约瑟夫·麦克莱恩摄

约瑟夫·麦克莱恩 | 二零零九年六月三十日

Lizabeth Allison, professor of 生物学 at William & Mary, has just received $204,105 in funding from the National Institutes of Health to continue her research on intracellular nuclear transport, a hot topic in basic biomedical science that has potential clinical applications for such cell-based maladies as cancer and thyroid hormone disorders.

The grant was announced through the office of Congressman Rob Wittman of Virginia’s 1st District. Allison’s lab has had continuous funding for this work since 2001—from the National Science Foundation as well as from NIH.

“Nuclear,” in this case, refers to the cell’s nucleus, where genetic information Post-doc Manu Mavinakere (left), an instrumental figure in Lizabeth Allison's lab, is beginning a painstaking analysis of amino acids related to nuclear transfer.

Post-doc Manu Mavinakere (left), an instrumental figure in Lizabeth Allison's lab, is beginning a painstaking analysis of amino acids related to nuclear transfer.

is stored, and not to nuclear energy. Allison’s work concerns the thyroid hormone receptor, a protein “messenger” that shuttles between the cell’s two major components, the nucleus and the cytoplasm. 艾莉森解释说，甲状腺激素受体是一种重要的蛋白质，它调节细胞核中基因的开启和关闭，以应对甲状腺激素。

“Our interest is in how this protein gets to where it needs to be in order to function and, in certain disease situations, how is it mislocalized,” Allison said. “The thyroid hormone receptor is made in the cytoplasm—that’s where proteins are synthesized—and it needs to go into the nucleus to interact with the DNA and to regulate particular genes.”

大约八年前，艾利森发现甲状腺激素受体不仅进入细胞核，而且还回到细胞质中。她说，了解甲状腺激素受体如何离开细胞核是NIH资助的重点。

“It doesn’t just go in and stay there and bind to DNA and regulate genes like everyone had thought for decades. It shuttles between the nucleus and the cytoplasm,” she explained. “We still don’t really understand the physiological significance of that, but it means that we started looking for mechanisms about how it gets into the nucleus and then we discovered we also had to study how it gets out.”

Allison’s study of intracellular “traffic control” is important to the greater understanding of how a number of DNA-related diseases work. 她解释说，例如，一些癌细胞在细胞质中有更多的甲状腺激素受体，而不是在细胞核中。

“So if you have something wrong with the import and export properties of the thyroid hormone receptor—then it can end up mostly in the cytoplasm, which means of course that it can’t function,” she said.

Allison’s lab is in William & Mary’s new Integrated Science Center. 她的助手是博士后研究员Manu Mavinakere，佳博体育经理Vinny Roggero和William & Mary的一些学生。