Investigating the potential role of Cadherin-23 as a Calcium sensor

Abstract

Cadherin-23, a non-classical Cadherin protein with twenty seven extracellular do- mains, is well studied for its role in hearing loss. It is involved in both homophilic and heterophilic interactions depending on the concentration of extracellular Cal- cium ions. In this thesis we standardise and try to utilise a physical chemistry based technique, to visualise the changes in the transmembrane domain of this mem- brane spanning protein upon ligand binding. In the scope of this thesis, we also at- tempt at understanding how this signal is further transmitted to the cell cytoskele- ton.