Research interest
Research activities in the Sui laboratory are centered around the applications of structural imaging methods to understand the functional mechanisms of macromolecular assemblies in their cellular context. The lab capitalizes various methods of electron microscopy (EM), in combination with light microscopy and molecular/biochemical approaches, to study the three-dimensional (3D) structures and regulations of macromolecular complexes and organelles in the cell.
A major research focus in the lab is on the primary cilia of epithelial cells, which sense and respond to extracellular environmental changes. Primary cilia are whip-like organelles that extend into extracellular space to sense extracellular signals. They are microtubule-based complexes enveloped by a ciliary membrane with an extensive complement of sensory membrane proteins involved in signaling pathways critical for embryonic development and organogenesis. The lab investigates the motor-driven transportation mechanisms along microtubules in primary cilia and their functional roles in cilia's structural maintenance and sensory functions.
The lab has also been investigating the structure and functional roles of some protein complexes in bacteria through a collaboration with Wadsworth Center and Albany Medical College bacteriologists. This includes a dual-function transcription factor, AbmR, from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and a c-di-AMP binding protein in Streptococcus pneumoniae.
We are also interested in the structural regulation of epithelial cells in responding to extracellular environmental changes and/or pathogen invasion. In collaboration with other laboratories, we are investigating the structure-function relationship of the large protein complexes of RNA viruses and mammalian cell-bacteria interactions.
Lab openings
The Sui lab currently is open to motivated Ph.D./Master students. PhD students graduated from this lab are anticipated to gain a solid methodology foundation for both electron tomography and single particle cryo-EM, in addition to experience in molecular cloning, biochemistry and cell biology, that should prepare them ready to tackle a broad range of biomedical problems using methods of multiscale structural imaging and strategy of corelative light and electron microscopy.
Interested applicants please contact haixin.sui@health.ny.gov with a copy of c.v. for more information