Blake Hill

Associate Professor
Department of Biology

CMDB Graduate Program Faculty
Program in Molecular Biophysics Faculty
Chemical-Biology Interface Faculty
Institute for NanoBioTechnology




B.A.
Kalamazoo College
Ph.D.
Yale University
Postdoctoral
University of Pennsylvania

 

Department of Biology
Johns Hopkins University
3400 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218-2685
U.S.A.
Office Telephone:
Lab Telephone:
Department Fax:
Email:
(410) 516-6783
(410) 516-6790
(410) 516.5213
hill@jhu.edu

 
Office - Mudd 20B
Lab - Mudd 4 

How is mitochondrial architecture controlled in healthy and dying cells?

We are an interdisciplinary team seeking to understand how membrane architecture is achieved and regulated by proteins.  We approach this question by using the mitochondria as a model system and study proteins that regulate mitochondrial membrane architecture in healthy and dying cells.  Currently we are focused on proteins involved in mitochondrial fission and fusion as well as proteins that interact with mitochondria during apoptosis.  Our work contributes to understanding the basic biology, chemistry, and physics of protein-protein and protein-membrane interactions that underlie these signalling pathways and are important in human disease.  We strive for an understanding that will identify new therapeutic routes and will also allow synthetic biology applications such as the the rational control of membrane architecture in the design of novel nanodevices.  To accomplish these goals, we use a wide range of tools to address these questions including cell biological, biochemical, and biophysical assays including NMR spectroscopy and x-ray crystallography for protein structure determination.  Please visit our lab website for more information:  https://sites.google.com/site/hillbiologylab/

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Picton LK, Casares S, Monahan AC, Majumdar A, Hill RB. Evidence for conformational heterogeneity of fission protein Fis1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biochemistry. 2009 Jul 21;48(28):6598-609. PubMed PMID: 19522466.

Tan FJ, Husain M, Manlandro CM, Koppenol M, Fire AZ, Hill RB. CED-9 and mitochondrial homeostasis in C. elegans muscle. J Cell Sci. 2008 Oct 15;121(Pt 20):3373-82. Epub 2008 Sep 30. PubMed PMID: 18827010.

F.J. Tan, J.E. Zuckerman, A.Z. Fire, and R.B. Hill. 2007. Regulation of apoptosis by C. elegans CED-9 in the absence of the C-terminal transmembrane domain. Cell Death Differ . 14:1925-35.

R.C. Wells, L.K. Picton, S.C.P. Williams, F.J. Tan, and R.B. Hill. 2007. Direct binding of the dynamin-like GTPase, Dnm1, to mitochondrial dynamics protein Fis1 is negatively regulated by the Fis1 N-terminal arm. J Mol Biol. 359(4):1045-58. EpubApr 6.

G.R. Thuduppathy, O. Terrones, J. W. Craig, G. Basañez, and R.B. Hill. 2006. The N-terminal domain of Bcl-xL reversibly binds membranes in a pH-dependent manner. J Biochemistry. 45:14533-42.

Thuduppathy GR, Craig JW, Kholodenko V, Schon A, Hill RB. 2006. Evidence that membrane insertion of the cytosolic domain of Bcl-xL is governed by an electrostatic mechanism. J Mol Biol. 359(4):1045-58. EpubApr 6.

Thuduppathy GR, Hill RB. 2006. Acid destabilization of the solution conformation of Bcl-xL does not drive its pH-dependent insertion into membranes. Protein Sci. 15(2):248-57. Epub 2005 Dec 29.

Fannjiang Y, Cheng WC, Lee SJ, Qi B, Pevsner J, McCaffery JM, Hill RB, Basanez G, Hardwick JM.2004. Mitochondrial fission proteins regulate programmed cell death in yeast. Genes Dev. 18(22):2785-97. Epub 2004 Nov 1.

Thuduppathy GR, Hill RB. 2004. Applications of NMR spin relaxation methods for measuring biological motions. Methods Enzymol.384:243-64. No abstract available.

Dohm JA, Lee SJ, Hardwick JM, Hill RB, Gittis AG. 2004. Cytosolic domain of the human mitochondrial fission protein fis1 adopts a TPR fold. Proteins. 54(1):153-6. No abstract available.

David Salom, R. Blake Hill, James D. Lear, and William F. DeGrado. 2000. Protons versus Amantadine: A competition for binding to the M2 tetrameric ion channel from Influenza A virus. Biochemistry, 39, 14160-14170.


Team Protein (aka Lab Members)


Graduate Students:
Marijke Koppenol (CMDB)
Jonathan Lees (CMDB)
Cara Marie Manlandro (CBI)
Lora Picton (CMDB)
Ammon Posey (PMB)
Robert Wells (CMDB)

Undergraduate Students:
Melinda Christie (Biology)
Jimmy Tooley (Biophysics)



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