Dorit Hanein 24th Australian Conference on Microscopy and Microanalysis 2016

Dorit Hanein

Dorit Hanein received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from The Weizmann Institute, Israel and pursued a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. David DeRosier at Brandeis University. In 1999, she accepted a faculty position at Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California and joined the Pathology Department at University of California, San Diego. Professor Hanein’s research focuses on developing novel set of tools and methods that form the core components of an innovative technology platform that links macroscopic cellular outputs to molecular-resolution structural changes in the crowded cellular environment. The innovative aspects of this technology lie on quantitative correlation of cutting-edge light and electron microscopy imaging modalities with state-of-the-art computational techniques, micromechanical engineering, and protein biochemistry. Hanein’s central biological interest is the structures of actin cytoskeleton macromolecular assemblies; the girders and cables that control the shapes and movements of all living cells. The anchoring sites of the girders, between the cell and the extracellular matrix or to other cells, are mechano-sensitive multi-protein assemblies that transmit force across the cell membrane and regulate biochemical signals in response to changes in the mechanical environment. The combined functions in force transduction, signaling and mechanosensing are crucial for cell and tissue behaviors in development, homeostasis and disease.