Role of the cell surface in health and disease
To understand the building block of life is to understand life itself. If we determine what is happening at the cellular level, it will have applications for all diseases.
To understand the cell is to understand life
Life is built with cells. Within the human body, there are 30 trillion cells and 200 different cell types. How does a healthy cell function? How do cells become specialised? What goes wrong with a cell in disease?
The Parton Group main focus is the cell surface or plasma membrane, the interface between the cell and the outside world. It stops unwanted things getting into the cell while allowing nutrients and signals to penetrate.
The plasma membrane is not a simple sheet but is specialised into different regions or domains each with a distinct structure, composition, and function. Our work aims to understand these domains – how they form, how they work, and what happens in disease. Our current focus is on two types of domain – caveolae – crater-like indentations that can respond to stresses by sending a signal into the cell. And transverse tubules – these amazing tubules are a striking feature of our muscle cells and allow an action potential to trigger muscle contraction.
Our work on plasma membrane domains has led into other areas. We have developed a novel drug delivery vehicle and we are studying the use of these vesicles in various applications.
Nanopartilce-based drug delivery
Group leader
Professor Rob Parton
Group Leader, Role of the cell surface in health and disease
Head, Cell and Developemental Biology Division, IMB
+61 7 3346 2032
r.parton@imb.uq.edu.au
UQ Researcher Profile
Our approach
We use a range of cutting edge techniques including gene editing technologies, mice, fish, cell lines, microscopy, biochemistry and electron microscopy (including serial blockface and focussed ion beam scanning electron microscopy, and cryoelectron microscopy of cells and molecular compleses) to understand the structure and function of the plasma membrane in diverse cell types, both in model cell culture systems and in vivo.
Aims to achieve
“We are examining how the cell structure works, and how it relates to different disease conditions. To tackle problems, we have to understand them first,” said Professor Rob Parton.
The Parton Group are developing new techniques using electron microscopy and virtual reality to construct interactive models of human cells.
“Using this technique we can develop a picture of the membranes of the cell in 3D and then using virtual reality, go into the cell to look around. It is a beautiful world at the cellular level.
“To understand the building block of life is to understand life itself. If we determine what is happening at the cellular level, it will have applications for all diseases.”
The Parton Group progress their discoveries from model systems right through to the animal.
Research projects
Mechanoprotection by caveolae; zebrafish as a model system The cavin interactome The structure and function of the cavin proteins
Research training projects
Research areas
Ageing
- Cancer (breast, prostate, and others)
- Muscle diseases including muscular dystrophy.
- Lipodystrophy
Our team
Research excellence
Help us shape the future
Stories
- Droplets of fat inside our cells are helping us fight back against infection.
- IMB's Professor Robert Parton and AIBN's Professor Kristofer Thurecht are Eureka Prize finalists for their project using VR to solve the problem of visualising complex data.
- Researchers have advanced their understanding of how a healthy embryo forms in its very earliest days, a discovery that could be used to improve IVF and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).