I joined UT just over a year ago. My research in biophysics focuses on cargo transport within living cells and on the molecular motor proteins that transport the cargos.

My PhD work at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland initiated my interest in biophysics. I realized that I could use the physics I learnt at Birzeit University, where I received my Bachelor’s degree, to explore the living world and in the process learn new physics. In Lausanne, I developed a novel near-field optical microscope capable of beating the diffraction limit using fluorescence resonance energy transfer. The microscope relied on scanning a fiber tip coated with donor fluorophores in close proximity to the sample. The image was formed by collecting light emitted by the acceptor molecules of the sample and had a resolution of the order of 10 nm due to the short-range nature of the energy transfer.

Before joining UT I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine where I started investigating motor protein function. I constructed an advanced optical trap setup for use in vivo (inside living cells). This enabled me to make the first in vivo measurement of molecular motor forces. Molecular motors consume energy released from ATP hydrolysis to generate a force that enables them to translocate. Hence, measuring that force amounts to directly probing their function.

In my lab at UT, we are using this handle on motor function to explore the strategies that cells undertake to regulate the complex task of cargo trafficking. Different cargos need to reach different places within the cell at different times. Failure to do so leads to diseases. Neurodegenerative diseases, such as the Huntington disease, are linked to motor function impairment. A better understanding of how the cell manages this complex transport process can not only lead to remedy strategies but also serve as a model for handling other complex systems.