This fall semester the Starbird Lab had the pleasure of hosting Maria Celeste Lopez Vasquez as a rotation student. She worked with Dr. Starbird on the isolation and expression of a new protein of interest called Feimin, with specificity for the receptor Mer (part of the subfamily of RTKs called TAM receptors), that has been linked to processes like cell survival, migration, differentiation, and the phagocytosis of apoptotic cells. The identification of this new ligand brings up questions like: (1) does Feimin, being a highly disordered protein, bind to Mer in the absence of PtdSer (a phospholipid both Gas6 and Protein S must recognize and bind to for activation of the TAMs); (2) what is the conformational state that allows Feimin to bind to Mer; and (3) what specific role(s) does Feimin play when binding and activating Mer?

 

Maria was a superstar this rotation and took on a project with a lot of risks. We are super proud of the work she did and can’t wait to see what other cool things she gets up to!