If you were in a friend's house for the first time and wanted to find a fork, the first place you'd look is probably the kitchen, right? Cells, too, keep different proteins in different compartments so that the proteins can perform the functions they're meant to efficiently. Our lab at the Scripps Research Institute studies the nuclear envelope - the membrane system that encloses the nucleus. The nuclear envelope controls what can enter and exit the nucleus, attaches the nucleus to the cell's structural elements, and regulates cell signaling.

In a paper that was recently published, we identified five new nuclear envelope proteins. These new proteins open the door for more research into new nuclear envelope functions. Mutations in some nuclear envelope proteins cause diseases like muscular dystrophies, lipid dystrophies, and the accelerated aging disease progeria. It will be exciting to learn what these new proteins are doing and what happens when their functioning goes awry!