An estimated 40 million people in the United States suffer from heel pain syndrome. They typically range in age from about 45 to 65, and most are overweight. Lohman studies the unwinding of DNA by proteins called helicases. As cells divide, they must unwind the double helix of DNA in order for the two strands to be replicated. Unwinding also must occur before damage from chemicals or irradiation can be repaired.
All cells contain an array of unwinding enzymes called helicases.
Lohman is investigating how these motor proteins are assembled and how they use ATP, the energy supply of cells, to unwind the DNA while also translocating along the DNA filament. David Linzee School of Medicine researchers have identified a strategy that enables the bacterium Salmonella to adapt to concentrations of iron that otherwise would kill it. The finding might help explain why this bacterium is so widespread throughout the world. In developed countries, Salmonella typhimurium causes food poisoning, which is unpleasant but not often fatal. But in developing countries, it causes typhoid fever, which kills approximately half a million people each year.