TPCB Faculty
Samara Reck-Peterson, PhD
Weill Cornell Medicine
Education
PhD, 2000, Yale University
BA, 1993, Carleton College
Research Topics
- Bioactive Small Molecules
- High-throughput screening assays
- Chemical probe development
- Macromolecular Structure and Function
- Mass spectrometry
- Single molecule methods
- Chemical Cell Biology
- Cellular imaging
- Proteomics
- Metabolomics
- Activity-based protein profiling
Therapeutic Areas
- Cancer
- Microbiology
- Neuroscience
The Reck-Peterson lab investigates mechanisms of intracellular transport in health and disease spanning molecular, cellular, and organismal scales. One current focus is the molecular basis of LRRK2-driven Parkinson’s disease, a disease linked to defects in intracellular transport. Leucine Rich Repeat Kinase 2 (LRRK2) is one of the most mutated genes in familial Parkinson’s disease (PD). Increased LRRK2 kinase activity is seen in both familial and idiopathic PD, making LRRK2 the main actionable target for PD therapeutics today. We are designing chemical probes and other tools to study the cellular function of LRRK2. Another current focus is to determine the cell biology underlying the production of eukaryotic natural products or secondary metabolites. We focus on those made by filamentous fungi in the sub-phylum Pezizomycotina, which are predicted to produce over two million distinct secondary metabolites. We recently discovered that changes in organelle trafficking impact secondary metabolite production in Aspergillus species. We are using genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic approaches to identify genes and proteins required for secondary metabolite production at scale.
Read more about Prof. Reck-Peterson’s research on the Weill Cornell website