Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology

Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Director, Program in Cell and Molecular Biology

Box 3813

C359 LSRC bldg

Duke University Medical Center

Durham, NC 27710

Tel (919) 613-8627

Fax (919) 681-1005

Email daniel.lew@duke.edu

daniel.lew@duke.edu

Graduate Student

hc43@duke.edu

I am interested in how yeast cells polarize actin cables after the "front" has been determined by Cdc42p. The conventional view is that Cdc42p directly activates an actin nucleator Bni1p at the polarization site. My study shows that it's not so simple!

Technician

michelle.jin@duke.edu

Graduate Student

jmj5@duke.edu

I am interested in how yeast mate. Haploid yeast of opposite mating type grow projections (shmoos) towards each other during mating. In order to correctly orient their growth, the cells follow pheromone gradients in a process termed chemotropism. My work studies how cells follow the pheromone gradient accurately, and how they form shmoos. I use genetic and microscopic tools to investigate the role of individual proteins in these processes.

Graduate Student

hk105@duke.edu

Septins are highly conserved GTP-binding proteins that form ordered filaments underneath the plasma membrane. In budding yeast, they assemble into ring-like structures in the bud initiation stage and later converts into collar-like structures. But the mechanisms of septin assembly are mostly unclear. I'm using live cell imaging and genetic mutations to probe which factors are invovled in this process.

Graduate Student

kmk18@duke.edu

Polarized growth in budding yeast is essential for forming new buds. This new bud must be formed before the end of mitosis so that the DNA can be partitioned into the two cell bodies. If there is a problem with the bud formation, the cell will arrest in G2 at the morphogenesis checkpoint. This checkpoint is dependent on the protein Swe1. But how does Swe1p know when there is a problem? My research tries to shed some light on this question. By causing transient depolarization in cells via stress (heat, salt, sugar, ethanol), I can use genetic and microscopy methods to examine how Swe1p regulators are involved in the morphogenesis checkpoint.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

NS115@notes.duke.edu

My background is in applied mathematics, as such I am interested in what can be implied about a system given our current knowledge of it. Since 2006 I have focused on biological systems, initially plants (Arabidopsis) and more recently yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae).Here in the Lew lab I develop computational models containing what we think to be the key components necessary for cell polarity. These include protein-protein interactions, protein membrane interactions, and protein movement via diffusion and membrane trafficking.

Graduate Student

ben.woods@duke.edu

Graduate Student

cw96@duke.edu

Polarity establishment involves amplification of a GTP-Cdc42p cluster via a positive feedback mechanism, which depends on the assembly of complexes containing a scaffold protein Bem1p, a GEF Cdc24p and a Cdc42p effector PAK. My work focuses on understanding the factors involved in the negative feedback loop that breaks down Bem1p-GEF-PAK complexes at the polarized site. I use time-lapse microscopy to follow the assembly/disassembly of the complexes in yeast cells with different genetic backgrounds.

Technician