Dennis Brown is a PhD. cell biologist who specializes in the use of state-of-the art fluorescence imaging and electron microscopy techniques to follow and dissect physiologically-relevant membrane protein trafficking events in epithelial and non-epithelial cells. He serves as the Associate Director of the CSB and the Director of the MGH Program in Membrane Biology (PMB) which brings together investigators from several areas of research related to protein trafficking and cell signaling in normal and disease states, including diabetic nephropathy. He became Professor of Medicine at Harvard in 2001 and has been at MGH since 1985.
The theme of the PMB is to understand how endocytotic mechanisms (including clathrin and caveolae-mediated processes) and endosomal pathways interact with accessory proteins (e. g., small GTPases, SNAREs, adaptors) and with the cytoskeleton (e. g., microtubules, actin, and PDZ proteins) in physiological and pathophysiological conditions to regulate the trafficking of membrane proteins that are important to epithelial cell function in different organs. Experimental models used range from in vitro systems using purified proteins and membrane vesicles (endosomes, Golgi, plasma membrane), to transfected cell cultures, to whole animal models including transgenic mice and diabetic rats and mice.
The aim of the Program is to understand how physiologically-relevant processes that regulate fluid and electrolyte transport, acid-base sensing, albumin internalization and trafficking, and other metabolic events are regulated at the cell and molecular levels and how they are disrupted by disease. Representative projects include:
