We are fascinated by the fundamental question of how the internal organization of cells is established, maintained and regulated.
All cells have an intrinsic polarity, set up in response to extracellular and intracellular cues.
The first is to elucidate the structure and function of the apical aspect of polarized epithelial cells. These cells have distinct apical and basolateral domains that allow them to perform their transport function. Establishment of polarity is directed by cues supplied by the extracellular matrix and adjacent cells, which the cell interprets using signal transduction pathways to assemble a polarized cytoskeleton. The second system is the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae where we wish to determine how the cell establishes and sets up its polarity. During cell growth in yeast, the mother cell picks a region on the cell surface to which secretion is targeted for the assembly of a bud, and then all organelles have to be segregated along this axis during cell division.