Molecular
Motors and Heart Disease
The Warshaw Molecular Motors Group focuses
on the structure and function of myosin, a molecular motor
associated with biological movement ranging from muscle contraction
to intracellular vesicular transport. Researchers still do
not understand how myosin converts the energy from ATP hydrolysis
into mechanical work as the molecular motor moves along its
actin track. Our approach is a comparative one by studying
myosin from various tissue sources that differ substantially
in both their structure and functional capacities. Additional
insight can be obtained from genetically mutated myosin and
actin, which lead to inherited forms of human heart failure.
We use the power of molecular biophysics and single molecule
techniques to characterize the molecular performance of the
actomyosin motor.
