Citation | Harvey McMahon conducts a highly creative research programme centred around molecular mechanisms underlying clathrin-mediated endocytosis. He has discovered different lipid -bending and curvature-sensing mechanisms, and established their generality in facilitating vesicle trafficking between different cellular compartments. The strength of his work is two-fold: first, by undertaking electron microscopic and x-ray diffraction studies, partly in collaboration with others, he has been able to formulate novel hypotheses regarding protein function; second, he has developed imaginative biochemical and cell-free assays to test these structure-function predictions. His research is truly ground-breaking, having a profound influence on current concepts of molecular processes fundamental to all cells. |