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Rick Baker

Rick Baker, PhD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member researching the molecular mechanisms of endocytosis and exocytosis.

PhD
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Cell Biology

Area of Interest

My laboratory is focused on the molecular mechanisms of endocytosis and exocytosis, with a particular emphasis on how recycling of cell surface receptors is regulated. Subversion of membrane trafficking, particularly at the cell surface, is implicated in a variety of human diseases, most notably cancer. The distribution and localization of many important therapeutic targets (GPCRs, receptor tyrosine kinases) must be precisely controlled at the plasma membrane. We use biochemical reconstitution and high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy to understand how the cellular machinery controls the composition of its cell surface.

Find publications on PubMed

Awards and Honors

  • Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2016-2019
  • NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2011-2014
A smiling man with brown hair and a beard wearing a navy blue buttoned shirt standing in front of a lab bench with shelves full of research supplies.

  • Address

    3010 Genetic Medicine Building

    Chapel Hill, NC 27599