Sergey Michael Bezrukov, D.Sc.,Ph.D.

Biophysics of Large Membrane Channels

We study mitochondrial and bacterial membrane proteins that form “large” beta-barrel channels responsible for metabolite fluxes between cells and cellular compartments. In particular, we are interested in the physical mechanisms of their functioning and regulation under normal and pathological conditions. Among many wet-lab approaches such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, bilayer overtone analysis, and confocal microscopy, our hallmark method is reconstitution of these proteins into planar lipid membranes in order to study them at the single-molecule level. Obtained findings pave the way towards rational design of new strategies and pharmacological approaches to effectively correct the deviant molecular interactions associated with pathology in disease and development.

Dr. Sergey Michael Bezrukov received his M.S. in physics from St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia, his Ph.D. in biophysics from Moscow State University, and a D.Sci. in physics and mathematics from the Russian Academy of Sciences. He started his career as a researcher at the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in Russia and moved to United States in 1990, first as a visiting research professor at the University of Maryland. In 1992, he joined the National Institutes of Health as a visiting scientist. He was awarded tenure by NIH in 2002. Dr. Bezrukov has authored numerous scientific papers, five of them published in Nature (London). He has organized and chaired many international meetings and workshops. Dr. Bezrukov’s honors include election to Fellowship in the American Physical Society (2009) and the NIH Director’s Award in Science and Medicine (2010). Dr. Bezrukov is the Chief of the Section on Molecular Transport,DIR NICHD/NIH, a position he has held since October 2002. Dr. Bezrukov’s section combines physical theory with experiments on bacterial, mitochondrial, and toxin-induced membrane channels, reconstituted in planar lipid bilayers, in order to address fundamental questions of membrane transport. This line of research serves as the basis for the development of new approaches to treatment of diseases where regulation of transport through ion channels plays the key role.