WEBVTT 00:04.379 --> 00:07.173 Epithelial cells are the cells that form the boundary 00:07.173 --> 00:09.759 between the inside of you and the outside of you, 00:09.759 --> 00:12.220 and as such, they have to do two things: 00:12.262 --> 00:16.433 One is they have to prevent you from mixing with the outside world, 00:16.474 --> 00:21.396 but also they have to control what you take in from the outside world 00:21.396 --> 00:25.025 and what you excrete back into the outside world. 00:25.442 --> 00:28.778 There's a top of the cell that faces the outside world, 00:28.778 --> 00:30.780 we call that the apical side, 00:30.780 --> 00:35.535 and then there are the sides that face the the intracellular fluid or blood space, 00:35.535 --> 00:37.620 we call that the basolateral side, 00:37.620 --> 00:42.083 and then there's glue that holds those epithelial cells together 00:42.083 --> 00:44.502 and prevent stuff from leaking between them, 00:44.544 --> 00:46.254 we call those tight junctions. 00:47.255 --> 00:49.591 So we're very interested in understanding 00:49.591 --> 00:52.844 the structures that are required to mediate function. 00:55.972 --> 00:59.350 Part of my lab is studying kidney epithelial cells 00:59.350 --> 01:04.189 and trying to figure out how they target proteins to the right places, 01:04.230 --> 01:06.316 apical versus basolateral, 01:06.316 --> 01:09.027 and how they organize their unique structures 01:09.027 --> 01:10.862 in order to carry out their function. 01:11.738 --> 01:15.450 The rest of the lab is studying polycystic kidney disease, 01:15.784 --> 01:20.038 and there are sort of two sets of projects within that group. 01:20.080 --> 01:25.043 One is focused on trying to understand at a molecular and cellular level 01:25.043 --> 01:29.964 what is it that the proteins encoded by the polycystic kidney disease genes do? 01:30.006 --> 01:32.383 What is their physiologic functions? 01:32.383 --> 01:35.637 And the other part of the lab is trying to figure out 01:35.678 --> 01:39.766 what are the therapeutic vulnerabilities in polycystic kidney disease? 01:39.808 --> 01:43.895 Are there small molecules or gene therapy strategies that could be 01:43.895 --> 01:47.649 used to try and fix the disease, or at least slow it down? 01:50.819 --> 01:54.447 We use a lot of different microscopy techniques, 01:54.447 --> 01:57.575 including immunofluorescence microscopy, 01:57.742 --> 02:02.664 electron microscopy, to analyze the kidney and understand its structures. 02:02.705 --> 02:05.375 We do a lot of protein biochemistry. 02:05.375 --> 02:08.336 We do a lot of molecular analysis 02:08.336 --> 02:13.007 and what we're trying to do is put together a holistic picture 02:13.007 --> 02:15.677 of what's going on in cells by interrogating 02:15.677 --> 02:19.430 all of these different features that allow us to assess whether 02:19.430 --> 02:22.225 the pathways and functions that we're exploring 02:22.225 --> 02:24.644 and the therapies that we're trying to develop 02:24.644 --> 02:27.188 mimics the aspects of the human disease. 02:30.400 --> 02:33.236 Like everybody, we're hoping, right, that we're going to develop 02:33.236 --> 02:37.365 a new understanding of how nature works in the context of how 02:37.365 --> 02:39.826 epithelial cells organize themselves 02:39.826 --> 02:44.247 and more immediately, we're hoping that we can identify 02:44.247 --> 02:47.750 new mechanisms that are responsible for polycystic kidney disease 02:47.750 --> 02:50.003 and, most importantly, new therapies. 02:50.170 --> 02:53.673 So our lab has developed a couple of therapies, 02:53.673 --> 02:55.967 one of which is in human clinical trials, 02:55.967 --> 02:59.554 one of which is hopefully headed towards human clinical trials. 03:01.347 --> 03:03.057 The great thing about 03:03.057 --> 03:06.895 working on a genetic disease like polycystic kidney disease 03:06.895 --> 03:08.855 is it can teach us both about 03:08.855 --> 03:12.942 potential therapies and also about fundamental physiology.