Niels Bradshaw

I study how cells sense cellular and environmental conditions to appropriately grow, divide, survive, and coordinate their behaviors in communities. Reversible phosphorylation of proteins is a fundamental mechanism cells use to control their physiology; I use genetics, cell biology, mechanistic enzymology, and structural biology to identify how phosphatases achieve regulation and specificity, and how kinases and phosphatases work together to controll signaling. We address these questions in two major biological systems: 1) Phosphatases that control stress responses, developmental programs, and community behavior in bacteria. 2) Phosphatases that control human signaling pathways that drive cancer and other diseases.