Michael Overduin's laboratory seeks to understand how proteins insert into membranes, recognize signals, and assemble into complex molecular structures. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy is used to visualize these events in three dimensional space at the level of interacting atoms. The data is applied to predict and test the location and activity of proteins within the cell. The proteins being studied are involved in biological processes including signal transduction and endocytosis. These form the molecular 'wiring' of a cell that generates responses to growth factors or hormones. In particular, he is interested in how the specificity of phosphoinositide recognition underlies targeting of proteins to subcellular membranes, and how cytoskeletal frameworks are organized based on recognition of peptide signals. The information provides mechanistic insights into cellular organization and development, and forms a basis for the rational design of modified proteins, new inhibitors and therapeutic agents. Many of the targets are involved in cancer causation and progression.