Faculty Research: Alexey Merz

Degrees:
B.A., 1992, Reed College; Ph.D., 2000, Oregon Health Sciences University; Postdoctoral, Dartmouth Medical School

Areas of Research:

DNA & Protein/DNA Arrays	Hybrid Materials
Self-Assembled Systems	Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering
Cell Signalling	Cellular Organelles
Motor Proteins	Nanoscale Signal Transduction
Biological Nanosystems

Selected Publications:
Merz AJ and Wickner WT. 2004. Resolution of organelle docking and fusion kinetics in a cell-free assay. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101:11549-11553.

Wang L, Merz AJ, Collins K, and Wickner WT. 2003. Hierarchy of protein assembly at the vertex ring domain for yeast vacuole docking and fusion. Journal of Cell Biology 160:365-74.

Wang L, Seeley, S, Wickner WT, and Merz AJ. 2002. Vacuole fusion at a ring of vertex docking sites leaves membrane fragments within the organelle. Cell 108:357-69.

Merz AJ, So M, and Sheetz MP. 2000. Pilus retraction powers bacterial twitching motility. Nature 407:98-102.

Positions Available:
Positions will be available beginning in 2004-2005. Please see lab website for current information.

Research Keywords:
Docking, fusion, and integrity of biological membranes. Assembly of signaling machines at membranes. Small GTPases as molecular switches.

Experticed Keywords:
cell biology, microbiology, genetics, biochemistry, light microscopy