Students Home Current Students Recent Graduates 2001-2002 2000-2001 1999-2000 1998-1999 1997-1998 Selected Graduates from Previous Years Tara Kirby tk@ddt.biochem.umn.edu California Institute of Technology Dave Thomas Lab I work in the Thomas lab, which pursues a wide variety of structural biology research relating to muscle proteins. My graduate study has focused on the functional interaction between the cardiac SR Ca-ATPase and its inhibitor, phospholamban. To accomplish this, I have engineered site-directed mutants of phospholamban that react specifically with a paramagnetic spin label. Using electron paramagnetic resonance techniques, I can probe the local structure and environment at each spin-labeled residue under a variety of conditions. This will give me information about the overall structure of the protein, its interaction sites with the Ca-ATPase, and the dynamics of its association.