The Melinda Diver Lab

Most drugs target membrane proteins, accessible on the surface of cells, to alter the transport of ions and molecules and the transduction of cellular signals. The Diver lab explores the biological functions and molecular mechanisms of understudied transmembrane protein families with the goal of revealing critical knowledge about their roles in human physiology and disease. How do these poorly understood ion channel and transporter families permit ion flux? What protein movements are involved? Does their dysregulation play a role in disease? These understudied proteins represent valuable potential drug targets for diseases, such as chronic pain and cancer, for which there is an urgent need to develop more effective therapeutic strategies.

The Diver lab’s approach is comprehensive, spanning tissues to cells to high-resolution structures, and exploits a range of biochemical, structural, biophysical, and physiological approaches to address questions concerning mechanisms and consequences of lipid-protein and protein-protein interactions and their effects on membrane protein function. As merely solving a structure provides only a superficial understanding of a protein’s function, we emphasize complementary techniques that provide a more complete understanding of a protein’s function and how it relates to human biology and therapeutics. For example, we identify modulatory drugs to yield unique and powerful pharmacological tools that have utility for our basic research and drug discovery efforts. Importantly, we aim to probe membrane protein structure and function in more native environments, thereby bridging gaps in knowledge between in vitro studies and in vivo models.

More information about our research can be found at https://diverlab.org.

Research Projects

• Exploring Understudied Membrane Proteins as Novel Drug Targets