Vergara Lab Website

Localization and function of calpain and Trim32 in muscle fibers.

This project is a collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Melissa Spencer, Department of Neurology, UCLA.

We take advantage of our experience in transfecting DNA plasmids into muscle tissue by in vivo electroporation in order to evaluating the expression of fluorescently-tagged proteins into live mammalian muscle fibers with high-resolution two-photon laser scanning microscopy (TPLSM). Our collaboration has already yielded exciting preliminary data showing that tagged-variants of calpain 3 localize to the muscle M-line and near the N2 line, thus confirming previously published yeast two hybrid studies.