Regulation of Membrane Trafficking
Now Hiring!
Post Doctoral and Research Associates
The Lab
Intracellular Cargo Transport
Eukaryotic cells such as yeast, plants, and humans use conserved pathways to direct small membrane-bound vesicles containing specific cargo to discrete subcellular compartments and to the plasma membrane for secretion. Proper navigation of these vesicles through the dense cytosol of the cell is crucial for normal growth, maintenance of cellular integrity, organelle biogenesis, and intercellular signaling events, such as release of hormones, cytokines and neurotransmitters. Disruption of these trafficking pathways has been implicated in a variety of humans diseases, including immune disorders, cancer, diabetes, ciliopathies, and viral and bacterial pathogenesis. Our lab is interested in elucidating the mechanistic details of vesicle delivery to better understand how specificity is maintained in complicated cellular environments, and how errors in trafficking can give rise to disease phenotypes.
Meet the Lab
Research Focus
Multidisciplinary Studies to Delineate Molecular Mechanisms
Our overall research goals are to delineate molecular mechanisms that underlie fundamental cell biology processes of membrane transport, including exocytosis, endocytosis and nuclear export. Elucidation of these mechanisms requires multidisciplinary approaches, combining protein and lipid biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology (both X-ray crystallography and state-of-the-art cryoEM), mass spectrometry and integrative computational approaches, fluorescence microscopy, and genetics and cell biology in a variety of model organisms.
Read MoreLatest Publications
Lee*, D. Lepore*, M. Munson†, and T.Y. Yoon† “Exocyst stimulates each step of exocytic SNARE complex assembly and vesicle fusion,” bioRxiv 10.1101/2022.01.16.476540, 2022. (equal contributions, *co-first, and †co-corresponding), submitted.
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Contact Us
Office:
Lazare Research Building 905
Lab:
Lazare Research Building 970
Phone:
508-856-8318 (office)
Email:
Mary.Munson@umassmed.edu
Mailing Address:
UMass Chan Medical School
Attn: Dr. Mary Munson/BMB Department
364 Plantation St LRB905
Worcester, MA 01605
Join Us
We are always interested in applications from qualified candidates at postdoctoral and research associate levels.
Read more here
Undergraduates interested in pursuing a PhD at UMass Chan Medical School should apply directly to the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Program.