postdoc position in microtubule research

[yixian]

Postdoctoral Position:

I am currently a postdoc at UCSF.  I have accepted a faculty position in 
the Department of Embryology at the Carnegie Institute of Washington 
which is located on the campus of the Johns Hopkins University in 
Baltimore.  I will begin my job no later than September this year and I 
am looking for a postdoc to start in September or possibly earlier.  This 
postdoc will be supported by Carnegie for up to two years.  The 
Department of Embryology offers an excellent environment for postdoctoral 
fellows.  There is also a lot of interaction between the Johns Hopkins 
University and the Department of Embryology.

I am interested in understanding in molecular detail how the centrosome 
nucleates microtubules and how this activity is regulated by the cell 
cycle.  I have been using gamma tubulin, a protein that was genetically 
shown to be important for microtubule nucleation in vivo, as a molecular handle 
to study the centrosome.  The experimental systems that I am using are 
Drosophila early embryos and Xenopus eggs.  I have purified a large gamma 
tubulin ring complex (gTuRC) from both systems and have found it contains 
gamma tubulin, alfa tubulin and beta tubulin and at least four other 
presently unidentified proteins.  This complex can nucleate microtubules in 
vitro by binding to the minus ends of its nucleated microtubules.  We 
hypothesize that the gTuRC is the major microtubule nucleator at the 
centrosome.  We shall continue to study the structure and function of the 
gTuRC.  We shall also determine how the gTuRC is recruited to the 
centrosome using a centrosome formation assay.  The long term goal in 
my lab is to use a combination of genetic and biochemical approaches to 
understand how the centrosome organize the microtubule cytoskeleton 
inside cells.

If you are interested in this position please contact me at 
Dr. Yixian Zheng
Department of Biochemistry
University of California at San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 94143-0448
Phone: 415-476-4581
Fax: 415-476-0806 or 415-476-5233
e-mail: zheng at cgl.ucsf.edu