I have been using advanced light microscopy techniques to investigate intracellular organization and function. Most of my work has involved imaging of living cells using confocal microscopy. I have recently completed work using green fluorescent protein chimeras to label the ER and Golgi apparatus during the cell cycle in sea urchin embryos. Three current projects are: how cells heal wounds in the plasma membrane; changes in ER structure during meiotic maturation; and nuclear envelope breakdown, where we are planning to use some computer modeling and two photon microscopy to understand steps involved in this process.

Accepting Lab Rotation Students: Fall 2022 and Spring 2023

 Lab Rotation Projects Terasaki/Fein Lab Cell Wounding Project We have developed an electrophysiological method for studying plasma membrane wound repair in single cells. Large plasma membrane disruptions in starfish oocytes, made by femtosecond pulses from a Ti-Sapphire laser, are repaired within a few seconds as shown by stabilization of membrane electrical properties and restoration of dye exclusion. The membrane potential after wounding is sensitive to the extracellular Cl- concentration but not to that of Na+, K+ or H+ indicating that Cl- permeable intracellular membranes have fused with the plasma membrane. We believe that cell wounding provides a novel means for the electrophysiological analysis of chloride permeable intracellular membranes that have been translocated to the plasma membrane.

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