UC Center for Transport and Membranes to Host Research Update

UC will host a short course titled "Computational and Structural Studies on Composite Membranes Containing Biological Transport Proteins: A Hands-on Course," Monday, Aug. 18.  This day-long course will highlight the research of the UC Center for Transport and Membranes, and showcase opportunities for collaboration across the various colleges and departments at UC and other universities across the state of Ohio. 

The Center for Transport and Membranes was established in 2002 following a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative (MURI/URI).  John Cuppoletti, MD, professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology is the lead principal investigator for the grant.  The grant award represents a joint effort between UC and the University of Pittsburgh to study the structure and function of native and engineered membrane transport proteins in synthetic membranes.  The Center has come to represent the sum of the activities of the researchers involved in the MURI program and the resulting collaborations.

"Our research provides enormous opportunities for development and discovery," said Dr. Cuppoletti.  "Many diseases involve defects in transport proteins.  Through this research, my colleagues and I hope to understand how these proteins work and apply it to numerous applications, including understanding diseases such as cystic fibrosis, cardiac disease, secretory diseases and neurological disorders.  Once we know the structure and function we can begin to make predictions and find new drugs.  This will improve the overall quality of life."  

Laboratory demonstrations will take place at 9:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.  For more information, or to arrange an interview, contact Dr. Cuppoletti at (513) 558-3021.

For background on UC's grant award, visit

http://medcenter.uc.edu/news/cdodgrant.ucm

.  For more information about The Center for Transport Membranes, visit

http://www.med.uc.edu/army/

.