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In the Duncan lab, we ask fundamental questions about how cells work. Our projects currently revolve around membrane traffic, the process by which trans-membrane proteins and proteins inside organelle arrive at their correct location. Our work investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying the movement of proteins between organelles, the regulation of membrane traffic by nutrients and how membrane traffic contributes to cell survival under different conditions. These studies are important for our understanding of what happens to cells when  deprived of nutrients such as during heart attack and stroke or when overexposed to nutrients as occurs during hyperglycemia.

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Lab news

January 2016

*Congratulations Destiney for being selected for a talk at the Neurological Disorders of Intracellular Trafficking

*Chao-wei's work on the role of Ent5 in coat assembly is published in Molecular Biology of the Cell.

*Congratulations Hannah for advancing to candidacy 

August 2015

*Congratulations Chao-wei and former technician Michael Lang for your work helping reveal the role of transcriptional errors in aging and proteotoxic stress published in Nature Communications.

July 2015

*Congratulations Chao-wei for having your image of yeast in motion selected for bioartography and featured on the local news!

June 2015

*Congratulations Hannah on being appointed to the Cell and Molecular Biology training grant!

*The lab welcomes new technician Fatima Javed.

May 2015

*The lab welcomes graduate student Hannah Hong and postdoctoral fellow Sagar Lahiri to the lab.

*The lab bids a fond adieu to Grace, who is leaving us for greener and muddier pastures to perform environmental science research.

April 2015

*Congratulations Jorge on being awarded an NRSA fellowship.

October 2014

*The lab welcomes new undergraduate assistants and researchers Chris, Robert and Bryant.

*Congratulations Destiney on being awarded an ASCB travel award.

*Destiney and Mara's dispatch on cellular energetics is published in Current Biology.

July 2014

*Welcome rotation student Molly Thorsen.

June 2014

*The lab bids a fond adieu to Jordan as he moves to Tennessee to start a new chapter in his scientific career.

*The lab welcome technician Grace Booth.

April 2014

*Congratulations former technician Michael, former undergrad Laura and current graduate students Jorge and Destiney for having their paper describing endocytic and autophagy responses to glucose starvation accepted in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

*Congratulations to Destiney for being awarded a Carl Storm Fellowship to attend the Protein Processing, Trafficking & Secretion Gordon Conference this summer.

*Congratulations to Jordan for accepting admissions to Vanderbilt for Graduate school.