Rachelle Gaudet, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Harvard University
Dept. of Molecular & Cellular Biology
7 Divinity Avenue, SF 229B
Cambridge, MA 02138
Telephone: 617 495-5616
Fax: 617-496-9684
Email: gaudet@mcb.harvard.edu
Lab website: The Gaudet Lab
We use a combination of x-ray crystallography and other biophysical and biochemical techniques to study the proteins involved in signaling and transport through biological membranes. The main project in the lab is to study the structure and function of “Transient receptor potential” (TRP) channels. The goal is to elucidate the gating mechanism of TRP ion channels involved in temperature sensing and understand modulatory interactions of proteins and small molecules with TRP channels. We focus on the temperature-sensing TRP channels such as TRPV1, TRPV2, and TRPM8. Several temperature-sensing TRP channels like TRPV1 and TRPV2 are expressed in nociceptor neurons, and therefore responsible for pain sensations in response to noxious stimuli. Therefore, with structures of these TRP channels we will be better equipped to design chemical inhibitors, which could potentially be used therapeutically.
Our long-term objective is to see how these TRP channels are gated by temperature and other chemical and physical stimuli at atomic resolution; therefore we prepare crystalline samples of isolated domains and complete channels for x-ray crystallography and structure determination and analysis. We also develop biochemical and biological assays, including electrophysiology, to address questions about TRP channel function.
We have additional projects on TAP, the transporter associated with antigen processing, and on divalent metal transporters of the NRAMP family. This allows comparisons between different protein families of ion channels and transporters.
For a complete listing of Rachelle Gaudet's publications on PubMed, click here.