Welcome
to the Scarlata Laboratory in the Physiology and Biophysics department
at Stony
Brook University Medical Center.
Our
laboratory focuses on the question of how external agents can evoke
responses inside the cell. While there are many agents that can
stimulate or inhibit cellular events, our laboratory is most interested
in the ability of certain hormones and neurotransmitters to activate a
family of proteins called "G Proteins" which consists of
three protein subunits (a-bg).
G proteins can simulate an enzyme called phospholipase Cb
(PLCb).
Activation of PLCb
raises the intracellular calcium concentration, which results in a
series of mitogenic and proliferative changes in the cell. The
experimental approaches we use combine biophysical, biochemical,
and molecular biology methods.
Why
do we study PLCb?
Many drugs either directly or indirectly invoke this pathway to
stimulate the cell. Importantly, PLCb
plays a key role in cell growth, development and division. Understanding
the PLCb
system would bring us closer to understanding what happens when normal
cellular checkpoints are not in place leading to uncontrolled cell
growth, such as in cancer and tumorogenesis.
Please
visit our Research
link to read about ongoing research projects in Scarlata lab.
