Danielle Schmitt, PhD

The Schmitt Lab’s research focus is to understand how the cell compartmentalizes metabolic regulation, and how this is perturbed in diseases like cancer. To undertake these studies, the Schmitt Lab develops genetically encoded fluorescent protein-based biosensors for kinase activity and metabolites to observe and measure cellular events in real time in living cells using fluorescence microscopy. They are particularly interested in understanding how the central metabolic regulator AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK) is spatiotemporally regulated, and how oncogenic mutations impact spatial AMPK activity and cell function.

Schmitt, D.L., Curtis, S.D., Lyons, A.C., Zhang, J.F., Chen, M., He, C.Y., Mehta, S., Shaw, R.J., and Zhang, J. Spatial regulation of AMPK signaling revealed by a sensitive kinase activity reporter. Nature Communications, 13, 3856, 2022 PMC9256702

Schmitt, D.L., Mehta, S., and Zhang, J. Study of Spatiotemporal Regulation of Kinase Signaling using Genetically Encodable Molecular Tools. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 71, 102224, 2022