Joseph Mindell

Dr Mindell has a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University and an MD/PhD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After training in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Mindell completed postdoctoral work in Chris Miller’s lab at Brandeis University before moving to the US NIH in 2002.

Dr Mindell’s laboratory focuses on understanding the mechanisms of transporter proteins and their roles in cell biological processes. In particular, the lab is interested in understanding the contribution of ion transport proteins to the establishment and maintenance of pH gradients across organelle membranes, gradients which contribute to a host of normal and pathological cellular processes. The Mindell lab is particularly interested in the role of the chloride proton exchanger ClC-7 in the establishment and regulation of lysosomal pH. After discovering the importance of ClC-7 in lysosomal acidification, the Mindell lab, in collaboration with the NIH undiagnosed diseases program, reported a novel gain-of-function mutation in ClC-7 that results in lysosomal hyperacidification, confirming the connection between chloride transport and pH regulation. Further work has established connections between ClC-7 regulation by signaling lipids and disease-causing mutations.

The Mindell lab has also made major contributions to understanding the mechanisms of other secondary active transporters, including demonstrating that the DASS family of anion transporters utilizes and “elevator type” transport mechanism and understanding the mechanisms of pharmacological inhibition, revealing that a bacterial homolog of the EAAT transporter family carries an uncoupled chloride conductance, and the first structural data on the CLC family.