Research
The often complex carbohydrates found on proteins and lipids, collectively know as glycosylation, are crucial to a myriad of biological processes including bacterial pathogenesis, cell signaling, tumor cell metastasis and neuronal development. Research in my laboratory is focused on the creation and application of chemical, biological and systems-based methods for the study of glycosylation. We work on three main areas of interest: 1. Development of Lectin Microarray Technology for the Systems-level Analysis of Glycosylation (Glycomics). 2. Understanding Glycan Regulation and the Role of Glycans in Cancer, Development and Pathogenesis Using Systems-Based Approaches.and 3. Dissecting the function of β -O-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (O-GlcNAc) in cell signaling.
Microvesicles (exosomes), nano-sized particles secreted from a diversity of cell types, take part in a plethora of normal and pathogenic events including the spread of prion proteins, remodeling of tumor microenvironments, induction of immune tolerance in the gut and immune surveillance for intracellular pathogens. The wide range of biological activity of these small vesicles is dependent upon their composition, which is regulated by mechanisms that are not well understood. Recent work by the Mahal Laboratory demonstrates a common glycomic signature for microvesicles from a variety of cell lines, implying a role for glycosylation in microvesicle protein sorting. Check out our paper in J. Proteome Research.
Orientation of proteins on microarray platforms has often required the preparation of specialized surfaces for printing. This limits the ability to print a diverse set of proteins, in turn limiting the analytical capacity of any array. In recent work, our laboratory has created a method to print oriented GST-containing recombinant proteins alongside native proteins, by creating a localized orientation surface in situ. Check out our work in Mol. BioSyst.
CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Bianca Batista, Dr. Kanoelani Pilobello and Dr. Daniel Propheter, the latest graduates of the Mahal Laboratory.
The Mahal Laboratory welcomes its newest members, Samuel Patrick Singh Ramonda (born March 2011) and Alec Damian Rakus (born April 2011).