Luke Chao joined the Harvard Medical School Department of Genetics in fall 2016 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Stephen Harrison. Chao divides his time between the Quad and the Simches Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.
HM News chatted with Chao about protein personalities, the great outdoors and the daily pleasures of laboratory research.
Luke Chao
Assistant professor of genetics at HMS and Mass General
Research focus: I investigate how cells get their shape. Important proteins work in groups to create structures that are hundreds of times their size. These proteins’ activities have to occur at the right place and at the right time. My group would like to understand at a detailed molecular level how these proteins work and how their dysfunction gives rise to disease.
For example, I’m interested in how mitochondria get their shape. They’re critical powerhouses of the cell, and they constantly undergo rounds of fission and fusion—splitting and merging. An area we’re particularly excited about right now is understanding how key proteins fuse two mitochondria into one.
Structures from scratch: It would be fun to try to reconstitute some of these cellular shapes in a test tube—to develop a blueprint and rebuild a cellular compartment from scratch. This would show a new level of understanding. It could provide a powerful way to treat diseases when these structures come apart, such as during neurodegenerative diseases or cancer.
Front-row seat: Direct visualization approaches give us a chance to gain new insights into the personalities of molecules. My group is especially excited about electron cryo-microscopy, or cryo-EM, and single-molecule fluorescence microscopy. Cryo-EM can give us multiple snapshots of proteins as they move and do their work, while single-molecule observation can give us an idea of how long proteins exist in different states. It’s a great time at HMS for cryo-EM. We’re excited about seeing these proteins in action.
Why HMS: It’s hard to find a more vibrant intellectual community than the Boston area. HMS is a particularly good place for my work because I can interface with people who do fantastic basic science as well as people who are directly treating the diseases these proteins are involved in.
Outside the lab: I enjoy spending time with my family. I like being outside; I run, ski and bike, and also enjoy hiking and camping. It would be wonderful to take my lab on an outdoor adventure.
Process geek: As an undergraduate, I had a job washing dishes in a lab. It was a wonderful environment. It helped me start to understand what was involved in research science outside the lecture hall: watching people day to day, seeing what’s involved in getting experiments set up, analyzing results and deciding which experiments to do next.
Daily delights: At the heart of it, I think science is a wonderful job, because you get to communicate about fascinating topics with other bright, sharp, interested people who really care, who are really engaged. It’s easy to get up in the morning.
