We discovered a process known as hitchhiking. This video shows a moving peroxisome (magenta) attaching to and moving on a specialized early endosome (green) in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. The mechanisms underlying peroxisome hitchhiking are not clear and is being actively pursued in the Salogiannis lab. Check out our research page for more details! (Movie taken on an OMX Blaze v4 with two-color simultaneous imaging and deconvolution)

We discovered a process known as hitchhiking. This video shows moving endoplasmic reticulum in a U2OS cell.  Some of these moving peripheral ER tubules are attached to a Golgi-derived vesicle marked by Rab6-GTPases (green; arrows). The mechanisms underlying Rab6-ER hitchhiking are not clear and is being actively pursued in the Salogiannis lab. Check out our research page for more details! (Movie taken on a Nikon CSU-X1 Spinning Disk Confocal)

The GTPase Rab8 marks post-Golgi vesicles critical for polarized growth. LRRK2 phosphorylates Rab8. We are investigating how LRRK2 regulates Rab8 movement and downstream biology. (Video taken using a CSU-W1 spinning disk confocal)

Rab5-marked vesicles (early endosomes) exhibiting rapid, bidirectional movement in the axon of a hippocampal neuron. We are interested in understanding how Rab-marked vesicles move in polarized cells (including neurons) and how they influence polarized growth and other biological processes. (Movie captured using a NikonTi TIRF scope).

Near simultaneous live-cell imaging of early endosomes (green) labeled with GFP-Rab5 (RabA) and peroxisomes (magenta) labeled with mCherry fused to a peroxisome targeting signal sequence. Our lab discovered that a specialized membrane-contact site forms between these two cargos ('hitchhiking') and regulates peroxisome movement (Captured on an OMX Blaze v4 with deconvolution)