The coordination of microtubule-dependent motors during axonal transport

Alison will investigate the intracellular trafficking machinery of neurons in the laboratories of Professor Erika Holzbaur (University of Pennsylvania) and Professor Giampietro Schiavo (London Research Institute). Alison's goal is to understand how the directionality of multi- motor arrays is controlled, as this is essential for determining how cargo motion is regulated in the context of distinct cellular functions. Specifically, she seeks to understand how direct interactions between oppositely oriented motors can reciprocally influence their activity, at both the single-molecule level (in the Holzbaur lab) and in vivo (in the Schiavo lab), and to discover how this regulates the delivery of axonal cargoes.