Rajini Rao, Ph.D.

The Rao laboratory uses yeast as a model organism to study novel ion transporters in the endomembranes of cells. Much of our work focuses on the secretory pathway Ca2+/Mn2+-ATPase and the endosomal Na+/H+ exchanger. Both were first discovered in yeast and shown to be founding members of new gene families that are ubiquitously distributed in eukaryotes. Our studies have uncovered fundamental mechanisms in salt tolerance, calcium signaling, manganese detoxification, pH control and vesicle trafficking that are common to yeast, plants and animals. More recently, we have extended our studies to mammalian systems where they have relevance to human health and disease. Future directions of our research will see the increasing use of high throughput phenotype screening and genome-wide approaches to analyze structure-function correlates in ion transporters, and to uncover the functions of novel genes in ion homeostasis, antifungal drug sensitivity and cell signaling pathways. For information on specific projects and references, please visit our website.