Travis Moore
Assistant Professor
McGovern Medical School at UT Health Houston
Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology
Cellular adhesion and migration require an intricate orchestration of membrane receptors and the cytoskeleton to transduce bidirectional force from extracellular substrates. When dysregulated, a myriad of pathologies can emerge from decreased immune extravasation (leukocyte adhesion deficiency), aberrant immune infiltration (rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and atherosclerosis) and tumor metastasis via epithelial-mesenchymal transition. While the importance of the forces generated between cell-cell/ECM and the cytoskeleton are appreciated in cellular regulation, it is unknown how force sensing surface receptors and adhesion complexes dynamically respond to forces and transduce mechanical information. Integrins are one such family of cell surface mechanoreceptors.
Education & Training
PhD - University of California - 2010