The goal of the Lombardo lab is to uncover the underlying molecular mechanisms governing cell polarity. The polarity of cells is a basic biological necessity where cells create regions that are physically or functionally different. This polarization is required for the foundations of life such as division, motility, differentiation and the determination of cell shape and structure. All living things polarize and our research seeks to understand this required component of all life as we know it. Additionally, disruption of polarity in humans can lead to disease which we seek to understand at a cellular and molecular basis.
As a interdisciplinary scientist my work has advanced this goal by combining two powerful disciplines: 1) Top-down cell biological analysis of the mechanism underlying epithelial apical polarity.2) Bottom-up biophysical single molecule techniques reconstituting basic molecular mechanisms in vitro. I leverage these tools to address the basic scientific framework that cells use to polarize