Campus Box C-240. I am working on tight junction regulation. Tight junctions are a very prevalent cell structure, present in all epithelia and endothelia where it serves two very important functions. Second, tight junctions are partly responsible for maintaining cellular polarity.
Tight junctions are a dynamic structure.
In response to various environmental stimuli, they can open and close to allow or to halt the passage of solutes and fluid, as in intestinal absorption, or cells, as in inflammation, across an epithelium. Knowledge of tight junction regulation can have important medical applications such as enhancing drug delivery. Our model for studying tight junction regulation is the mouse mammary gland. Currently, it is the only physiologically relevant in vivo model of tight junction regulation. During pregnancy, tight junctions of the mammary epithelium are leaky, allowing even large molecules like proteins to pass through.