Polarity complexes in cellular differentiation

A critical issue in biology is how a cell establishes polarity. The establishment of a defined polarity is important for the function of a cell. For example, a skin cell (known as an epithelial cell) has one side exposed to the external environment and another side in contact with the internal environment. Each side of the cell needs to perform separate functions which requires the localization, and enrichment, of different cellular components to one side of the cell or another. Increasingly, it is evident that a set of proteins collectively known as polarity proteins, are involved in this process. Many of these proteins are conserved across different organisms. Despite this knowledge, we have little understanding of how these polarity proteins function in the cell. Our laboratory utilizes an approach to identify novel proteins, or proteins complexes, that interact with the known polarity proteins. This provides us with important insights into the nature of these polarity complexes, and how they interact with one another to control cellular polarity. Together this approach provides us with fundamental knowledge of how different cell types in our body develop to perform specific functions.