Henry N. Higgs, Ph.D.

Research

My laboratory is interested in how mammalian cells control actin filament assembly. By my count, actin filaments are crucial to at least 15 distinct cellular processes in mammals, and I am certain there are more processes to be found. All of these structures use the same helical actin filaments, but often organize these filaments into very different higher order assemblies to conduct their specific functions. The actin monomers for all of these structures come from a common cytosolic pool, and are dynamically cycling between structures. We have three current projects, building from initial biochemical studies to investigate formin function in cells.