Dr Pradeep K Luther

Pradeep Luther leads the Laboratory of Electron Tomography of the Sarcomere in the Molecular Medicine Section of the NHLI, Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London.  Dr. Luther studied Physics for his first degree.  His PhD was on the symmetry of the thick filaments in vertebrate muscle.  Dr Luther’s research subject is the structure of striated muscle sarcomere and how it relates to the function.  He has worked extensively on the two cytoskeletal elements of the sarcomere, the M-band and the Z-disc.  His current major research is on the structure and organisation of myosin binding protein C (C-protein) in cardiac and skeletal muscle.  There is great interest in this protein as mutations in the gene for the cardiac isoform are a major cause for inherited heart disease.  

The main technique in this lab is electron microscopy and electron tomography.  To monitor and optimise the quality of the samples, it is very important to examine thick sections by light microscopy.  For this, Dr. Luther has found invaluable leading the histology practicals for the 1^st Year Medicine course.  We have an in-house Jeol 1200 electron microscope for routine work.  We also have access to an FEI CM200 FEG electron microscope.

 
Selected Publications:

Luther, P.K, Winkler, H., Taylor, K., Zoghbi, M.E., Craig, R., Padron, R., Squire, J.M. and Liu, J. (2011) Direct visualisation of myosin binding protein C bridging myosin and actin filaments in intact muscle. Proc. Nat. Academy Sciences. 108(28):11423-11428

Luther, P.K. 2009. The vertebrate muscle Z-disc: sarcomere anchor for structure and signalling. J Muscle Res Cell Motil. 30:171-85.  Abstract

Luther, P.K. (2007)   Sample shrinkage and radiation damage of plastic sections, in “Electron Tomography, Second Edition” (ed. J. Frank) Springer, New York, 17-48.