Faculty

Ronald Milligan 
Professor
Department of Cell Biology
TSRI - 1987

Education 
Ph.D. Stanford University 1985

Awards & Activities 
Editorial Board, Journal Structural Biology;
Member: Science and Society Institute of the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences

Research Focus 
Structure and Action of Molecular Machines

In cells there are hundreds of macromolecular assemblies. They may be composed of only a few or perhaps scores of proteins and are the functional units - the molecular machines - of the cell. We use cryo-electron microscopy and image analysis to study the structure and mechanism of action of several of these molecular machines. The three-dimensional maps we calculate from electron images of the assemblies are used together with the x-ray structures of the individual components to build models of the working machines and to understand their molecular mechanisms. We have ongoing research projects on the following assemblies: actomyosin, kinesin-microtubules, MAPs-microtubles, VCP/p97 and dynein AAA ATPases, various membrane channels and transporters, bacterial toxins.

Selected References 
Wells, A.L., Lin, A.W., Chen, L.-Q., Safer, D., Cain, S.M., Hasson, T., Carragher, B.O., Milligan, R.A., Sweeney, H.L. Myosin VI is an actin-based motor that moves backwards. Nature 401:505-508, 1999.

Rice, S., Lin, A.W., Safer, D., Hart, C.L., .Naber, N., Carragher, B.O., Cain, S.M., Pechatnikova, E., Wilson-Kubalek, E.M. Whittaker, M., Pate, E., Cooke, R., Taylor, E.W., Milligan, R.A., Vale, R.D. A structural change in the kinesin motor protein that drives motility. Nature 402:778-784, 1999.

Vale, R.D.,Milligan, R.A.. The way things move: Looking under the hood of molecular motor proteins. Science 288:88-95, 2000.

Moores, C.A., M. Yu, J. Guo, C. Beraud, R. Sakowicz and R.A. Milligan A mechanism for microtubule depolymerizatin by KinI kinesins. Molecular Cell 9:903-909, 2002.