Award
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 5R01AI178180-03
Structural basis of apoptotic scrambling
Recipient
WEILL MEDICAL COLL OF CORNELL UNIV
Award Amount
$637,820.00
Ceiling
$637,820.00
Awarded
December 08, 2025
Identifier
5R01AI178180-03
Award to Weill Medical College of Cornell University for research on the structural basis of apoptotic scrambling by XKR proteins, aiming to understand lipid transport and regulation mechanisms using cryo-electron microscopy.
Description
This project aims to determine how XKR proteins transport lipids and how their activity is regulated in cells. Using cryo-electron microscopy, the structure of human XKR4 in a likely active conformation was determined at 3.55 Å resolution. The project will investigate the structures of XKR4 and CED-8 in different conformations, how they interact with and remodel the membrane bilayer, and how cellular factors regulate their activity, including processing by caspases, phosphorylation, or interactions with peptides derived from XRCC4. The research goals include determining structures of XKR proteins in different states, visualizing how XKR proteins scramble membrane lipids, and elucidating regulatory mechanisms of XKR activity.