Post-doctoral Fellow
Research
I studied organelle contact sites while earning my PhD in Jodi Nunnari's lab at UC Davis. I elucidated a role for ER-mitochondria contact sites in directing the mitochondrial division machinery to actively replicating mitochondrial DNA, which facilitates the faithful inheritance of mitochondrial DNA and the function of mitochondria in cellular respiration. I also discovered a family of lipid transport proteins that facilitate the transfer of sterol lipids between organelles. I found that these proteins play a role in communication between organelles and in stress response pathways in cells.
In the Dillin lab, I am studying the processes that contribute to proteostasis collapse with age. I am also interested in the communication of protein folding stress across tissues and how these pathways can modulate lifespan. Using C. elegans as a model system, my goal is to understand these processes on a molecular and cellular level.
Publications
Murley, A. and Nunnari, J.2016. The Emerging Network of Mitochondria-Organelle Contacts. Molecular Cell, 61, 648-653.
Murley, A., Sarsam, R.D., Toulmay, A., Yamada, J., Prinz, W.A., Nunnari, J. 2015. Ltc1 is an ER-localized sterol transporter and a component of ER-mitochondria and ER-vacuole contacts. Journal of Cell Biology, 209, 539-548.
Labbé, K, Murley, A., Nunnari, J. 2014. Determinants and functions of mitochondrial behavior. Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology, 30, 357-91.
Murley, A., Lackner, L.L., Osman, C., West, M., Voeltz, G.K., Walter, P., Nunnari, J. 2013. ER-associated mitochondrial division links the distribution of mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA in yeast. Elife, 2, e00422.
Lackner, L. L., Ping, H., Graef, M., Murley, A., Nunnari, J. 2013. Endoplasmic reticulum-associated mitochondria-cortex tether functions in the distribution and inheritance of mitochondria. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110, E458-67.