Roger R. Lew Ph.D. (Cornell) Professor of Biology This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Research Field: Biological Physics Research specialization: Cellular biophysics; electrophysiology; ion channels; single cell signal transduction. Publications

Regulation of transport across cellular membranes defines the intracellular environment under diverse external conditions. Not only does transport control the composition of the intracellular milieu, but it also functions as a mechanism for translating external triggers (light, hormones etc.) into intracellular responses.

My research focuses on the regulation of transport at all levels of complexity: the whole cell, isolated membranes, and single proteins (that is, ion channels). The tools I use are electrophysiology: multi-barrelled micropipettes to inject substances into the cell and perform current-voltage analysis, patch-clamping to measure ion channel activity; biochemistry: characterization of transport activity in vitro; and molecular biology: to clone and characterize genes encoding transport proteins. We work with a variety of model systems - algal, fungal, and plant - and focus on transport properties associated with particular transduction processes.

Examples of on-going research projects are: 1) pressure and osmotic regulation of electrical properties of Arabidopsis root hairs, 2) characterization of an Arabidopsis MEKK kinase homologue (AtMEKK1), 3) micro-injection of components affecting tip growth in Neurospora crassa, 4) electrical analysis of calcium dioxide transport in Eremosphaera, and 5) black lipid membrane identification of fungal inositol-trisphosphate receptors.