Robert A. Farley: Membrane Transport Biophysics

Email:	rfarley@usc.edu
Office Location:	MMR 250
Office Phone:	(323) 442-1240
Lab Location:	BMT-320
Simulations Lab Location:	MMR 250
Lab Phone:	(323) 442 2719
Website:	Robert Farley
Ph.D. Programs:	PIBBS ; Neuroscience

The primary interest of our lab is to understand the mechanisms that are used by membrane transport proteins to move ions and small molecules across cell membranes. Our work includes investigations of the structures of both ion channels and membrane transporters, and utilizes the techniques of membrane protein biochemistry, multiple types of spectroscopy, electrophysiology, and molecular biology. In the past ten years, several atomic level structures of transport proteins have become available, and using these structures as a starting point, we have moved primarily to using molecular dynamics simulations of channels and transporters as a tool to elucidate dynamic mechanistic details of these proteins.

Current projects include investigations of the mechanisms of ion selectivity in Na+- and K+-selective ion channels, the mechanism of coupling of ATP hydrolysis and ion transport in ion-motive P-type ATPases, and the mechanism underlying the observation that the serotonin transporter exhibits characteristics of both an alternating access transporter and an ion channel. We are also interested in the role of membrane-protein interactions in the polymerization of the huntingtin protein and we collaborate with another lab on a project to understand SNARE protein-mediated exocytosis.