Rothman Lab

Membrane fusion is a fundamental biological process for organelle formation, nutrient uptake, and the secretion of hormones and neurotransmitters.

It is central to vesicular transport, storage, and release in many areas of endocrine and exocrine physiology, and imbalances in these processes give rise to important diseases, such as diabetes.

We employ diverse biophysical, biochemical, and cell biological approaches to characterize the fundamental participants in intracellular transport processes.

Time lapse images of fusing flipped-SNARE cells.

SNARE Overview

Over 30 years ago, we observed what we interpreted to be vesicular transport in crude extracts of tissue culture cells. In subsequent years we found... more...

Current Research & Projects

Our lab is working to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of vesicular transport within cells and the secretion of proteins and neurotransmitters. We take an interdisciplinary approach which includes cell-free biochemistry, single molecule biophysics, high resolution optical imaging of single events/single molecules in the cell and in cell-free formats. more...