Dabir Lab

Loyola Marymount University · Department of Biology

Dabir Lab

A mitochondrial biology lab, run by undergraduates.

Deepa V. Dabir, Ph.D.

Chair and Professor of Biology

Contact meGet involved
Deepa V. Dabir

About our lab

Loyola Marymount University

“Mitochondria produce most of the energy a cell runs on, but they cannot build most of their own machinery. Around a thousand of their proteins are assembled elsewhere in the cell and imported. We work on that import machinery in budding yeast: how it recognizes its cargo, how it uses chemistry to pull a protein across a membrane, and what fails when it breaks. Import failures are implicated in human disease, so mapping the healthy process is the prerequisite for understanding the broken one.”
Dr. Deepa V. Dabir

Highlights

Scroll

  • 2026Undergraduate Library Research Award

    Presley A. Taylor

    Grand prize, $1,000

    A sophomore biology major, for “Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Immunometabolic Reprogramming in Lyme Disease Associated Fatigue,” written for an Independent Research course in the lab. Her bibliography ran to more than fifty references, nearly all primary sources.

    Source
  • 2026Rudinica Prize for Student-Faculty Research

    Deepa Dabir

    Seaver College

    “An accomplished teacher-scholar, Dabir has mentored numerous undergraduate researchers, many of whom have become co-authors on peer-reviewed publications.”

    Source
  • 2024TriBeta research grant

    Caroline Thorpe

    Beta Beta Beta Research Foundation

    A senior, funded for “The Unfolded Protein Response of the Endoplasmic Reticulum Supports Aim32 Function in Mitochondrial Biogenesis.”

    Source
  • 2024NIH, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

    The lab

    $431,700 over three years

    For “Aim32, a Multi-faceted Redox Protein, in Mitochondrial Biogenesis.” The grant that the current three project threads run on.

    Source
  • 2022West Coast Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Conference

    Kamilah Roca-Datzer '22

    First place, oral presentation in biochemistry

    At the 45th annual conference in San Diego, for “Aim32 Is a Dual-Localized 2Fe-2S Mitochondrial Protein That Functions in Redox Quality Control.” She is a co-author on the paper.

    Source

Research

All research

01

Protein import

How the machinery of the mitochondrial intermembrane space recognizes the proteins it is meant to take in, and how it holds onto them once they are across.

02

Redox-regulated translocation

The Mia40-Erv1 disulfide relay and the electron acceptors that keep it turning over, among them cytochrome c, cytochrome c peroxidase, and Osm1.

03

Aim32

A dual-localized 2Fe-2S thioredoxin-like ferredoxin. We are working out what it does in mitochondrial biogenesis, in respiration, and in the assembly of the mitoribosome.

Selected publications

All publications

  1. Aim32 is a dual-localized 2Fe-2S mitochondrial protein that functions in redox quality control

    Zhang D, Dailey OR, Simon DJ, Roca-Datzer K, Jami-Alahmadi Y, Hennen MS, Wohlschlegel JA, Koehler CM, Dabir DV

    Journal of Biological Chemistry

  2. In vivo imaging of mitochondrial membrane potential in non-small-cell lung cancer

    Momcilovic M, et al., Dabir DV, et al., Shackelford DB

    Nature

  3. A small molecule inhibitor of redox-regulated protein translocation into mitochondria

    Dabir DV, Hasson SA, et al., Koehler CM

    Developmental Cell

  4. A role for cytochrome c and cytochrome c peroxidase in electron shuttling from Erv1

    Dabir DV, Leverich EP, et al., Koehler CM

    The EMBO Journal

The lab

The lab is run by undergraduates. About six student researchers work here at a time, on budding yeast in part because it is a system an undergraduate can actually run. They present their own findings at conferences, and several have become authors on their own papers.

“An accomplished teacher-scholar, Dabir has mentored numerous undergraduate researchers, many of whom have become co-authors on peer-reviewed publications.”
Elizabeth and Michael Rudinica Prize for Student-Faculty Research, 2026

Current support: the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, for Aim32, a Multi-faceted Redox Protein, in Mitochondrial Biogenesis.

An LMU science student in a lab coat and gloves holding up a test tube
Deepa Dabir holding the framed Rudinica Prize certificate in a lecture hall
Rudinica Prize, Seaver College, 2026