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		Search Text: Home/< Back ToThe Science/Molecular and Cellular Imaging
  Molecular and Cellular Imaging
    The Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Imaging, led by Dr. Justin Taraska, studies how vesicles fuse with and are captured from the cell surface in mammalian cells.
    On This Page
    
          Justin Taraska
  Justin Taraska, Ph.D.
          Senior Investigator
          Email
      Meet the Team
            Contact us
  Senior Investigator Research Interests
            
  Research Interests
              **Exocytosis, Endocytosis, and Imaging Technology Development**Cells communicate with each other by releasing proteins, peptides, and chemicals through a process called exocytosis–the fusion of cargo-loaded vesicles in the cytoplasm with the plasma membrane. Triggered exocytosis is a highly regulated process. Cells go to great lengths to ensure that exocytosis occurs at precisely the right time and location, and that the correct quantity and type of materials are released during each exocytic burst. Once vesicles fuse, vesicle material is cleared from the plasma membrane through a coat-driven retrieval process called endocytosis. The primary retrieval mechanism in eukaryotic cells is clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME). In CME, dozens of proteins capture, polymerize, and bend a honeycomb-like coat around pieces of the plasma membrane. How this complex ensemble of protein is organized, however, is largely unknown.In a healthy cell, these two processes, exocytosis and endocytosis, are carefully balanced. Disruption of either can result in deficiencies or excesses of signals, leading to diseases such as Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, epilepsy, diabetes, and Huntington’s disease. Not surprisingly, understanding exocytosis and endocytosis has been a major goal for the biological sciences. The accumulation of data from many fields, including genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, and structural biology, has provided a spectacular understanding of this biology. Yet much remains to be discovered. Specifically, it is not well understood how dozens of different molecules work together in the crowded cellular environment to regulate and catalyze exocytosis and endocytosis. Furthermore, the central question of how these processes are carefully balanced even under drastic changes in cellular activity is unclear. Thus, the Taraska lab’s long-term goal is to understand the basic molecular foundations of triggered exocytosis and endocytosis. We aim to accomplish this by providing a detailed but comprehensive spatial and temporal molecular map of these processes in living cells.At its core, the Taraska lab develops and uses advanced fluorescence and electron microscopy methods along with structural, biochemical, cellular, and biophysical tools to investigate the nanometer-scale organization of proteins that regulate key cellular events. A gap exists between understanding protein structures and their dynamic cellular contexts. As more atomic structures are solved, filling this gap becomes more important and challenging. We aim to fill this gap by developing and using new ultra-high resolution imaging tools to determine the nano-scale structures, organizations, and dynamics of molecules that are important for the biology of membrane traffic in neurons, endocrine, and immune cells.We map the fundamental architecture of molecular machines to understand how these complex assemblies function in living cells.DCV
  Data

            Sochacki, Kem A., Bridgette L. Heine, Gideon J. Haber, John R. Jimah, Bijeta Prasai, Marco A. Alfonzo-Mendez, Aleah D. Roberts, Agila Somasundaram, Jenny E. Hinshaw, and Justin W. Taraska. “The structure and spontaneous curvature of clathrin lattices at the plasma membrane.” *(2021) Dev. Cell*. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2021.03.017
	Data posted on Figshare (https://doi.org/10.25444/nhlbi.c.5334212)
	Prasai B, Haber GJ, Strub MP, Ciemniecki JA, Sochacki KA, Taraska JW*“The nanoscale anatomy of exocytic dense-core vesicles in neuroendocrine cells.” (2021) *Nature Communications.*12:3970. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24167
	Data posted on Figshare (https://doi.org/10.25444/nhlbi.c.5405490.v1)
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Featured Publications
                A conformational switch in clathrin light chain regulates lattice structure and endocytosis at the plasma membrane of mammalian cells
            Authors:Prasai B, Haber GJ, Strub MP, Ciemniecki JA, Sochacki KA, Taraska JW
                                                                                                                        
            Nature Communications.
      
                2023 Feb 09;14(1):732
        Read Publication
                      The molecular organization of differentially curved caveolae indicates bendable structural units at the plasma membrane.
            Authors:Matthaeus C, Sochacki KA, Dickey A, Puchkov D, Haucke V, Lehmann M, Taraska JW
                                                                                                                        
            Nature Communications;13(7234):
        Read Publication
                      Dual clathrin and integrin signaling systems regulate growth factor receptor activation.
            Authors:Alfonzo-Méndez, M. A., Sochacki, K. A., Strub, M.-P. & Taraska, J. W.
                                                                                                                        
            Nat Commun.
      
                2022 Feb 16;13(1):
        Read Publication
                      The structure and spontaneous curvature of clathrin lattices at the plasma membrane.
            Authors:Sochacki KA, Heine BL, Haber GJ, Jimah JR, Prasai B, Alfonzo-Méndez MA, Roberts AD, Somasundaram A, Hinshaw JE, Taraska JW.
                                                                                                                        
            Dev Cell.
      
                2021 Apr 19;56(8):1131-1146
        Read Publication
                                View More Publications
  Meet the Team

    Justin Taraska

            Justin Taraska, Ph.D.
                Senior Investigator
                Justin Taraska received his B.A. in biology from Reed College in 1999 and earned his Ph.D. in cell biology from Oregon Health and Science University in 2004 in the laboratory of Wolfhard Almers. He conducted his postdoctoral research in the laboratory of William Zagotta at the University of Washington during which time he received a Jane Coffin Child Memorial Fellowship. In 2010, Dr. Taraska became a tenure-track Investigator at the NHLBI. Dr. Taraska is a 2012 PECASE recipient, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers. Dr. Taraska is a member of the Biophysical Society and the American Society for Cell Biology. He is also faculty in the analytical and quantitative light microscopy course (AQLM) at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, MA.
    
          Contact the lab
    50 South DrBethesda, MD 20814United States
        Phone:
                    301-496-3002
                Fax:
  Kem Sochacki
    
            Kem Sochacki, Ph.D.
        

    Staff Scientist

        sochackika@mail.nih.gov
            Aleah
    
            Aleah Roberts, Ph.D.
        

    Postdoctoral Fellow
            Kazuki Obashi
        

    Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow

        kazuki.obashi@nih.gov
            Willy Sun
        

    Postdoctoral Fellow

        willy.sun@nih.gov
            Dennis J. Michalak
        

    Postdoctoral Researcher

        dennis.michalak@nih.gov
            Amera Martinez
        

    Predoctoral Fellow

        amera.martinez@nih.gov
            Keerti Yadav
        

    Postdoctoral Fellow

        keerti.yadav@nih.gov
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