Research Interests
Energy is a fundamental necessity of all living cells. Without it, cells cannot move, grow or replicate. In eukaryotic cells, energy is generated by two specialized membrane compartments (organelles), located in the cytoplasm of the cell. One is called the mitochondria, which derives cellular energy from the breakdown of food, and the other is the chloroplast, which uses the power of sunlight to generate cellular energy. Both organelles have an intricate inner membrane system which houses the proteins responsible for converting sunlight, or the energy released from the breakdown of food, into cellular energy.

The structure of the inner membrane systems is extremely important. In mitochondria, disruption of the inner membrane system is associated with many deleterious diseases in human. However, in chloroplasts and photosynthetic bacteria, alterations to the internal membrane system is an essential part of photoprotection. How these changes are achieved is currently unknown and this is exactly what the Davies’s lab is investigating. To achieve this, we use the technique of electron cryo-tomography and sub-tomogram averaging to directly determine the structure and arrangement of proteins in situ and the influence of these protein structures on membrane morphology.

Through our research, we aim to determine which proteins are responsible for inner membrane morphology; how these proteins shape the membranes; how the morphology of the inner membrane systems influence energy production, and most importantly, how the protein complexes involved in energy production interact in the membrane to generate energy efficiently. These results will uncover fundamental principles governing energy production in eurkaryotes which can then be used to develop novel approaches for curing mitochondrial diseases and designing synthetic systems for the artificial production of electricity and biomaterial.