The Warshaw Molecular Motors Group

Molecular Motors and Heart Disease: The Warshaw Molecular Motors Group focuses on the structure and function of myosin, a molecular motor associated with biological movement ranging from muscle contraction to intracellular vesicular transport. Researchers still do not understand how myosin converts the energy from ATP hydrolysis into mechanical work as the molecular motor moves along its actin track. Our approach is a comparative one by studying myosin from various tissue sources that differ substantially in both their structure and functional capacities. Additional insight can be obtained from genetically mutated myosin and actin, which lead to inherited forms of human heart failure. We use the power of molecular biophysics and single molecule techniques to characterize the molecular performance of the actomyosin motor.