Micah Allen Rapp

Micah Allen Rapp

Titles

Graduate Student

I am a joint graduate student in the Honig-Shapiro Lab and the Simons Electron Microscopy Center (SEMC) at the New York Structural Biology Center, and a recipient of the National Science Foundation GRFP Fellowship. I am currently using cryo-electron microscopy to study the tip-link, a molecular filament composed of atypical cadherins protocadherin 15 and cadherin 23. The tip link connects hair cell stereocilia and serves a key role in mechanoelectrical transduction in the inner ear. Though the use of single particle analysis and electron tomography, my research aims to provide structural insight into the complex biophysical characteristics of the transduction machinery, as well as explain the mechanistic disruptions caused by genetic mutations that result in deafness.


Education History

BSc, Purdue University Biology


Publications

M Rapp, J Schein, K Hunt, V Nalam, G Mourad, N Schultes, The solute specificity profiles of nucleobase cation symporter 1 (NCS1) from Zea mays and Setaria viridis illustrate functional flexibility. Protoplasma 2016 253, 611-623 J Minton, M Rapp, A Stoffer, N Schultes, G Mourad, Heterologous complementation studies reveal the solute transport profiles of a two-member nucleobase cation symporter 1 (NCS1) family in Physcomitrella patens, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 2015 100, 112-117