BSI Virtual Lunch Time Seminars

BSI Virtual Lunch Time Seminar: Professor Jennifer Kavran (John Hopkins University) 

We are pleased to welcome Professor Jennifer Kavran (John Hopkins University) to give our next Lunchtime Seminar.

A universal mechanism for activation of MST2 during Hippo signal transduction

Abstract

Hippo signal transduction relies on the activity of a core kinase cassette that can be activated by multiple upstream signals. We wanted to rationalize how multiple could each promote activation of the same kinase, MST2. We performed a biophysical analysis of the entire complement of SARAH domains to determine how these interactions could influence MST2 homodimerization. We investigated the biochemical nature of MST2 activation and demonstrated increasing proximity of MST2 kinase domains is sufficient to trigger autophosphorylation. We showed in cells that events known to stimulate signal transduction, also increase both MST2 proximity and autophosphorylation.  Together, our work reveals that a single molecular mechanism controls MST2 activation. 

Biography 

My long-term goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms that regulate signal transduction pathways. My interest in structure-function began as graduate student at Yale in the laboratory of Tom Steitz where I determined the structure of pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase.  For my post-doc, I shifted my focus to signaling pathways.  In the laboratory of Dan Leahy at Johns Hopkins, I uncovered how ligand binding activates the receptor tyrosine kinase IGF1R. Currently I am an Assistant Professor, and my lab is focused on understanding the regulation of the Hippo core kinase cassette using a multiprong approach including cell biology, enzymology, biophysics, and structural biology. 

Zoom details

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/j/96136925961?pwd=bnl0a254NFNUdVgzZFVEaHNrcEE3Zz09

Meeting ID: 961 3692 5961

Passcode: 816387