Pinkett Heather W
Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
J Mol Biol. 2025 Jun 1;437(11):169082. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2025.169082. Epub 2025 Mar 13.
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at Northwestern University. My research program investigates the structure, function, and regulation of membrane proteins, with a particular emphasis on ATP-binding cassette (ABC) importers. ABC transporters are a highly conserved superfamily of transmembrane proteins found across all organisms. These proteins utilize the energy from ATP binding and hydrolysis to transport of a broad array of substrates- including metabolites, lipids, peptides and drugs- across cellular membranes. In this perspective, I discuss how structural and biophysical characterization of ABC importers have significantly advanced our understanding of the mechanisms underlying their transport function. I also highlight the challenges in developing a unified mechanistic model and propose that the remarkable diversity of ABC transporters may necessitate multiple transport mechanisms for a complete picture of how these critical proteins function.
我是西北大学分子生物科学系的副教授。我的研究项目致力于探究膜蛋白的结构、功能及调控，特别关注ATP结合盒（ABC）转运体。ABC转运蛋白是一类在所有生物体中都存在的高度保守的跨膜蛋白超家族。这些蛋白利用ATP结合和水解产生的能量，将包括代谢物、脂质、肽和药物在内的多种底物转运穿过细胞膜。在这篇综述中，我将探讨ABC转运体的结构和生物物理特性如何显著推进了我们对其转运功能潜在机制的理解。我还将强调建立统一机制模型所面临的挑战，并提出ABC转运蛋白的显著多样性可能需要多种转运机制才能全面了解这些关键蛋白的功能。
