Skip to main content

Jamal Bryant

Florida State University


Ray Blind lab

The Blind lab is primarily interested in nuclear lipid signaling, and explores the structure and function of nuclear lipid-modifying enzymes and atypical nuclear receptors. Steroidogenic Factor-1 (SF-1) is a phospholipid-binding nuclear receptor that regulates the transcription of steroidogenic genes in endocrine tissues. We have shown that SF-1 can bind non-membrane associated nuclear phophoinositide-phosphates (PIPs), and that SF-1 activity is increased when bound to PIP3 and inhibited when bound to PIP2. SF-1 binds these PIPs in a novel configuration in which the headgroup is exposed, and the fatty acyl-tails are buried within the ligand-binding domain. My current project is to use biophysical approaches to determine how SF-1 structure and function are altered by PIP3 acyl-chain length and degree of saturation.