David Hackney

Professor of Biological Sciences

The Hackney laboratory is investigating a range of enzymes that couple ATP hydrolysis to energy-requiring processes. One focus is the molecular motors in the kinesin family that move a range of cargo molecules inside cells along tracks of microtubules. An important class of cargo for these motors is mRNAs, many of which require proper motor-dependent localization to subregions inside the cells for proper translation and function. Our work is directed both at the mechanisms of these motors and how they can be regulated and how selection of cargo is controlled.

We are also studying (in collaboration with the De La Cruz lab at Yale) the mechanism of an RNA helicase and plan to extend this analysis to other RNA-dependent ATPases that are required for structural rearrangements of secondary and tertiary RNA structure.

Lab Webpage: http://www.cmu.edu/bio/faculty/hackney.html