Dr. Jim Spudich

Biography

Jim Spudich is the Douglass M. Nola Leishman Professor of Cardiovascular Disease in the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford University. His research group, the Spudich laboratory, has focused for decades on the structure and function of the myosin family of molecular motors in both in vitro and in vivo systems. He has developed multiple new tools for in vitro motility assays, which have advanced the understanding of molecular motors at the single-molecule level using laser traps. His current work centers on the molecular basis of hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy, with a significant hypothesis proposed in 2015. He suggested that the majority of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutations likely cause shifts in the b-cardiac myosin heads from a sequestered off-state to an active on-state in interaction with actin, thereby resulting in the hypercontractility observed in patients. This perspective challenges prevailing views in the field, viewing an old disease in a new light and forming the basis for his current research.

Research Interests