Gary Brouhard
Title:
Associate Professor
Link(s):
Research areas:
Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Areas of expertise:
Cells adopt a range of shapes and can build an amazing variety of structures from proteins. We are interested in the biophysical mechanisms by which cells engineer these large-scale structures--in other words, the molecular basis of morphology. The subject of our current research is the microtubule cytoskeleton. We investigate the proteins that control the microtubule cytoskeleton, namely microtubule polymerases, motor proteins, and other microtubule-associated proteins. The lab uses the techniques of single-molecule biophysics, which shed light on the fundamental workings of these important enzymes.
Selected publications:
2018
- Chaaban S, Jariwala S, Hsu CT, Redemann S, Kollman JM, Muller-Reichert T, Sept D, Bui KH, Brouhard GJ. The structure and dynamics of C. elegans tubulin reveals the mechanistic basis of microtubule growth. (2018) Developmental Cell. 23(1): 181-92.
- Brouhard GJ, Rice LM. Microtubule dynamics: an interplay of biochemistry and mechanics. (2018) Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. 19(7): 451-163.
2017
- Chaaban S, Brouhard GJ. A microtubule bestiary: structural diversity in tubulin polymers. (2017) Molecular Biology of the Cell. 28(22): 2924-2931.