Mason Wilkinson Email and Phone Number

Sanders Lab studies how membrane protein misfolding and mistrafficking underlies disease. I am investigating how the misfolding of peripheral myelin protein 22 can be rectified in cell culture using pharmocological chaperones. I hope to use my findings to advance efforts to treat Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Type 1A.

Unckless Lab's research explores the evolution of Drosophila immunity with particular regard to Drosophila antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). AMPs are small, secreted proteins that interact with and directly kill pathogens.Many Drosophila AMPs have been researched extensively, but many remain functionally understudied. I am interested characterizing the structure and function of some of these AMPS.http://www.uncklesslab.com/

The De Guzman Laboratory primarily studies the characterization of bacterial Type III Secretion System (T3SS) proteins using NMR technique.Under PhD student, Kawaljit Kaur, I created mutants of Yersinia pestis T3SS tip protein LcrV and used E. coli models to grow and purify them for characterization with NMR. The aim of this project was identifying residues of LcrV involved in interaction with other proteins of the T3SS in Yersinia sp. Kawal recently performed a small molecule assay to screen for inhibitors of these interactions. We hope this assay will be a starting point for developing T3SS inhibitors and novel bacteriostatic antibiotics.My most recent work has been with postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Supratim Dey. We are characterizing interactions of the Burkholderia pseudomallei tip translocon complex using TROSY-NMR and circular dichroism.http://www.people.ku.edu/~rdguzman/

I spent two summers with the Halfmann Lab seeking to discover new prions and explore how they contribute to phenotypic diversity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. During my first summer I was mentored by postdoctoral fellow Shriram Venkatesan - our project utilized genetic tug-of-war (gTOW) to study toxic protein aggregation in hopes of determining whether aggregation was used by cells as a form of dosage compensation, as wells as to gain further insight into how cells compensate for the effects of aneuploidy. In doing so, we have discovered several promising protein candidates for further study with FRET analysis.The following year I took a more independent role investigating the relation between protein aggregation and the peculiar yeast metacaspase, Yca1. I wanted to know if there was a correlation between Yca1's proteolytic activity and its co-aggregation with heat shock proteins (HSP). My project involved developing a fluorescent sensor of Yca1's proteolytic activity to couple with another fluorescent tool Halfmann Lab uses to study aggregation.During these experiences I learned how to design my own experiments, familiarized myself with a new model organism and new techniques, came to better understand the types of questions a scientist must to perform quality research.http://research.stowers.org/halfmannlab/