The Department of Biochemistry's weekly BCH 252 seminar series is presented this week by

Dr. Tianmin Fu, Assistant Professor, Ohio State University 

Seminar Title: “Molecular Mechanism of lysosomal pH homeostasis"

Biography: Dr. Fu received his Ph.D. from Peking University, China and did postdoc training with Prof. Hao Wu at Harvard Medical School, where Dr. Fu had worked on immune signaling using biochemical and biophysical methods.  Dr. Fu’s research at Ohio State University has been focusing on lysosomal signaling using biochemical and biophysical approaches, in particular cryo-EM. 

Abstract: The acidic lumen of lysosomes, combined with numerous luminal hydrolases, enables lysosomes to be perfectly constructed for the degradation of major macromolecules, including polysaccharides, lipids, nucleic acids, and proteins, which is critical for maintaining cellular homeostasis. However, mechanisms by which lysosomes maintain its pH stability remain elusive. Using cryo-EM as a major tool, we determined structures of V-ATPase and TMEM175, revealing their intriguing roles in lysosomal pH homeostasis. Further structure-based functional study confirmed our hypothesis derived from our structural study. In my talk, I will briefly summarize our work on V-ATPase followed by highlighting the mechanism of TMEM175 in K⁺ conductance as well as its role in lysosomal pH homeostasis. 

Faculty Host: Dr. Li Fan, li.fan@ucr.edu