Xuelang (Maymay) Mu 50th Lorne Proteins Conference 2025

Xuelang (Maymay) Mu

Xuelang (Maymay) Mu is a fifth-year Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology (BBSB) graduate student in Dr. Tamir Gonen’s lab at UCLA. She earned her B.S. in Life Science from Peking University and trained under Dr. Nieng Yan at Tsinghua University, focusing on the functional and structural studies of membrane proteins. As a postgrad fellow at Yale University in Dr. Nancy Carrasco’s lab, she investigated the mechanism of a disease-related sodium/iodide transporter. At UCLA, Maymay’s research focuses on the structural mechanisms of membrane proteins involved in cancer, particularly the amino acid transporter SLC38A9 and its role in the mTORC1 pathway. SLC38A9 is vital in cancer cell metabolism by regulating nutrient sensing, and its dysregulation contributes to tumor growth. By combining structural biology techniques with functional assays, Maymay aims to uncover how SLC38A9 mediates cancer cell survival and identify potential therapeutic targets in nutrient acquisition pathways for cancer treatment.