Hi everyone! My name is Erica Hahn, and I am a rising sophomore the College of Arts and Sciences. I’m majoring in Biochemistry with a minor in Public Health. 

This summer, I will be continuing my works from the past semesters with Dr. Rodrigo Maillard. The Maillard lab focuses on the mechanisms of regulation and signal transduction of Protein Kinase A (PKA) which is a family of proteins that works to phosphorylate other proteins in complex signaling pathways in cells. Because PKA is involved in many critical signaling pathways, it has been associated with many diseases including Carney Complex and Acrodysostosis, making it an important therapeutic drug target. My project over this summer would be to observe and detect the behavioral changes of PKA using FRET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer) sensor that our lab developed. Specifically, I will  be observing the interaction between the catalytic subunit of PKA and smoothened protein in hedgehog signaling which has shown to regulate PKA activity, different from the traditional PKA regulator cAMP and regulatory subunit. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Ben Myers from the University of Utah. 

From this research, I hope to deepen the  knowledge that our scientific community has on the interaction between smoothened protein in hedgehog signaling and PKA. If successful, this would open new ways in understanding how PKA can be regulated. I also hope to develop my research skills and engage in further discussions with my fellow Laidlaw scholars that would expand my scope of knowledge.