Department & Program:

• Oral Biology, M.Sc.

Funding Sources:

• CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarships Master’s Award
• High Quality Student Enrolment Incentive Award
• University of Manitoba Student Union Scholarship

Research Focus:
Intracellular calcium is the principal regulator of cardiac contractility.  Alterations in calcium regulation are crucial in the development of various cardiac diseased conditions.  Phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PLC) is a cellular protein that hydrolyzes phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2), a lipid found in the cell membrane, into diacylglycerol (DAG) and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate  (IP3).  DAG activates Protein kinase C, while IP3 causes release of calcium from the endoplasmic reticulum.  The mechanism responsible for regulating PLC is not well understood.

We and others have shown that small GTP-binding proteins belonging to the Ras superfamily (Ral, Ras, Rho), which are important in cell signaling pathways controlling cell proliferation, bind to and regulate various isoforms of PLC.  In our lab we use various biochemical, molecular biology, immunology, and cell culture techniques in order to define the role of these proteins in PLC regulation.  The long term goal of the research is to be able to understand how interactions between small GTP-binding proteins and PLC regulate activity of this enzyme.