Allosteric proteins are the basic building blocks in the transmission of biological signals between and within cells, and from the extracellular environment to the cytosol. The modular organization of allosteric proteins, involving multiple domains and subunits, provides the structural scaffold for intricate regulation mechanisms mediated by networks of intra- and inter-subunit interactions.

In the Maillard lab, we are interested in understanding the physical basis by which individual domains in an allosteric protein communicate with each other to transduce signals from one place to another. To answer this fundamental question, we use single molecule techniques together with bulk biochemical and biophysical assays, and molecular dynamic simulations.