Telephone: (301) 496-6368

E-mail: jlippin@helix.nih.gov

Office: Building 32, Room 103

• Development of a photoactivatable GFP.  This variant of GFP can be attached to a protein of interest and then used to mark and monitor the behavior of the fusion protein in cells by selective photoactivation using an intense UV light pulse.  This technique can provide powerful new insights into a protein's dynamics and turnover rate in vivo. 
• Analysis of the behavior of transport machinery (including coatomer and Arf1) in living cells, clarification of organelle inheritance strategies and the dynamic analysis of the secretory pathway in various cell types and in living embryos.

Our Laboratory uses live cell imaging approaches to analyze the spatio-temporal behavior and binding interactions of molecules in cells. These approaches are helping to change the conventional 'static' view of protein distribution and function in cells to a more dynamic view that integrates information on protein localization, concentration, diffusion and interactions that are indiscernible from protein sequences and in vitro biochemical experiments alone. Projects in the lab cover a vast range of cell biological topics, including protein transport and the cytoskeleton, organelle assembly and disassembly, and the generation of cell polarity. Analysis of the dynamics of fluorescently labeled proteins expressed in cells is performed using numerous live cell imaging approaches, including FRAP, FRET, FCS and photoactivation. The overall goal of the lab is to characterize fundamental principles governing protein geography and movement within cells.