Jul 2, 2020
Professor Kallol Gupta's
research into natural peptides and receptors, specifically
neurotoxins, lead him on a path towards the deep sea cone snail,
which release neurotoxins particularly helpful in studying how our
cellular membranes work.
He explains
Kallol Gupta is an
assistant professor of Cell Biology at Yale University and runs
the Gupta Lab. He started his academic studies in chemistry
and developed an interest in biology after studying the venom
library of cone snails of the coast of India.
Often called poisonous snails, they are actually venomous because
they inject their prey with neurotoxins through a harpoon-like
structure that houses a proboscis that's able to shoot out, sting,
and inject. He became interested in how these toxins had fine-tuned
their actions and were able to hijack animal physiology.
He explains to listeners how
mass spectrometry has opened the door to a much more thorough
glimpse of this action on a cellular level. He describes how
these toxins bind to membranes. Like a bomb, the toxins throw a
large number of compounds at the cell and a small number hit the
target. But it's enough to effect the neurons of their prey. He
adds that he wants to study what is special about the few that are
able to bind with the membrane. If scientists like him want to
target specific proteins, they can figure out how other organisms
are already doing this in nature and learn from them.
Dr. Gupta tells listeners about the challenging environment of the
lipid cell membrane and how they have figured out how to study it
inside the mass spectrometer itself before it degrades and loses
its nature. He adds why these studies are so important, from
developing a fundamental understanding of biological functions to
developing drugs that can appropriately bind to their target.
Listen in for interesting details.
For more, see his lab's web
site: medicine.yale.edu/lab/gupta/
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK