Simon Bullock
Molecular cell biology of cytoskeletal transport
sbullock@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.ukPersonal group site
Molecular motors have critical roles in the trafficking of organelles, vesicles and macromolecules within the cytoplasm, and aberrant motor function is associated with diseases such as neurodegeneration. Our goal is to understand how motor complexes recognise different cargoes and deliver them to the right place. We have a long-standing interest in cytoplasmic transport of messenger RNAs, a process widely used to control where specific proteins operate, but have also become intrigued by how motors sort other types of cargo. We use complementary techniques in our studies, including Drosophila genetics, in vivo imaging, biochemistry, structural biology and single molecule imaging of cargo transport in vitro.
The questions we are interested in include:
- How does the microtubule-based motor dynein recognises specific mRNAs, vesicles and organelles and sort them to different destinations?
- How is the action of multiple motors bound to a single cargo orchestrated?
- How is transport regulated by extrinsic cues, and how do these events contribute to polarised cell functions?
- How does disruption of motor function contribute to neurological diseases, and can these defects be reversed?
Selected Papers
- Salvador-Garcia D., Jin L., Hensley A., Gölcük M., Gallaud E., Chaaban S., Port F., Vagnoni A., Planelles-Herrero V.J., McClintock M.A., Derivery E., Carter A.P., Giet R., Gür M., Yildiz A., Bullock S.L. (2024)
A force-sensitive mutation reveals a non-canonical role for dynein in anaphase progression.
J Cell Biol 223(10): e202310022 - Wong C.H., Wingett S.W., Qian C., Hunter M., Taliaferro J.M., Ross-Thriepland D.**, Bullock S.L.** (2024)
Genome-scale requirements for dynein-based transport revealed by a high-content arrayed CRISPR screen.
J Cell Biol e202306048: - Heber S*, McClintock M.A.*, Simon B., Mehtab E., Lapouge K., Hennig J., Bullock S.L.**, Ephrussi A** (2024)
Tropomyosin 1-I/C coordinates kinesin-1 and dynein motors during oskar mRNA transport.
Nat Struct Mol Biol s41594-024-01212-x - Madan V., Albacete-Albacete L., Jin L., Scaturro P., Watson J.L., Muschalik N., Begum F., Boulanger J., Bauer K., Kiebler M.A., Derivery E., Bullock S.L. (2023)
HEATR5B associates with dynein-dynactin and promotes motility of AP1-bound endosomal membranes.
EMBO J 42:e114473. doi: 10.15252/embj.2023114473 - Gáspár I., Phea L.J., McClintock M.A., Heber S., Bullock S.L.**, Ephrussi A** (2023)
An RNA-based feed-forward mechanism ensures motor switching in oskar mRNA transport.
J Cell Biol 222:e202301113. doi: 10.1083/jcb.202301113 - Fumagalli, L.*, Young, FL.*, Boeynaems, S.*, De Decker, M., Mehta, AR., Swijsen, A., Fazal, R., Guo, W., Moisse, M., Beckers, J., Dedeene, L., Selvaraj, BT., Vandoorne, T., Madan, V., van Blitterswijk, M., Raitcheva, D., McCampbell, A., Poesen, K., Gitler, AD., Koch, P., Vanden Berghe, P., Thal, DR., Verfaillie, C., Chandran, S., Van Den Bosch, L., Bullock, SL.**, Van Damme, P**. (2021)
C9orf72-derived arginine-containing dipeptide repeats associate with axonal transport machinery and impede microtubule-based motility.
Science Advances 7: no. 15, eabg3013 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg3013
*Joint first authors **Joint corresponding authors
Group Members
- Lucas Albacete Albacete
- Sabila Chilaeva
- Li Jin
- Razina Kazi
- Mark McClintock
- Sankar Meenakshi Sundaram
- Eve Mehtab
- Kyle Nickel