Shyamal Mosalaganti, PhD

Shyamal Mosalaganti was born and brought up in India. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher learning, India. He then moved to the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, Germany, on an International Max Planck Research Fellowship to study the structure and function of membrane proteins in the lab of Stefan Raunser. During his Ph.D. program, he also worked in collaboration with the group of Andrea Musacchio to elucidate the architecture of the components of human kinetochore.

Inspired by the revolution in cryo-electron microscopy, Mosalaganti continued his postdoctoral research work in understanding the architecture of protein complexes in near-native environments (in-situ structural biology). In the lab of Martin Beck at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, his work led to mapping the symmetric core of the human nuclear pore complex.

In his lab at the U-M Life Sciences Institute, Mosalaganti continues to provide structural snapshots of macromolecular complexes in-situ, with a special focus on understanding lysosomal function, positioning and inter-organelle crosstalk.

My laboratory is interested in understanding how membrane-enclosed structures within our cells perform their jobs to maintain cell health. We are particularly interested in lysosomes, which not only play an important role in cellular 'waste management,' but also serve as a key decision-making center controlling cellular growth and survival. My lab combines state-of-the-art cryo-electron microscopy/tomography and correlative microscopy approaches with biochemical and cell biology methods to elucidate how lysosomes perform their functions and engage in clearance of pathological aggregates, transport ions and metabolites and play indispensible roles in maintaining cellular homeostasis.