Over the course of this fellowship, Dr Jason King will be investigating the maturation of macropinosomes.
Macropinocytosis is a bulk endocytic pathway that allows cells to capture large volumes of their aqueous environment and plays a number of physiologically important roles. However, surprisingly little is known about what happens to macropinosomes after they enter the cell.
The research aims to understand the mechanisms underlying macropinosome maturation - in particular, the critical early events when macropinosomes are remodelled and concentrated in order to integrate with other trafficking pathways, whilst recycling plasma membrane components before degradation.
