Intracellular architecture is important to the proper functioning of all eukaryotic cells.
We want to understand how the molecular relationships among the organelles of the secretory and endocytic pathways and the microtubule system contribute to the polarized phenotype in epithelial cells. Our initial approach was to study the life cycles of specific plasma membrane proteins in vivo. We used quantitative biochemical and morphological methods to identify the complex routes taken by newly-synthesized molecules in liver hepatocytes. An important goal is to identify the protein machinery that targets vesicles to a specific pole of the cell. This work has implications for cancer, since most cancers are epithelial in origin and metastasis is often associated with loss of polarity.