Samantha Barrick

Education

  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017, Ph.D. Physical Chemistry
  • University of Pittsburgh, 2011, B.S. Chemistry
  • University of Pittsburgh, 2011, B.A. Political Science

Brief Biography

Dr. Barrick is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Maine. During her graduate studies at the University of Illinois, she studied mechanotransduction (the processes by which cells sense and respond to mechanical force) at cell-cell junctions. She then completed a postdoc at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, focusing on the proteins involved in cardiac muscle contraction. Her lab at the University of Maine uses a multiscale approach to understand the biochemical and biophysical basis of cardiac mechanotransduction, with implications for the pathogenesis of familial cardiomyopathies (genetic diseases of the heart muscle).

Research Areas

  • Bioinformatics/Computational Biology
  • Cardiovascular
  • Molecular and Cellular Biology

Publications

  • Clippinger Schulte, S.; Scott, B.; Barrick, S.; Stump, W.; Blackwell, T.; Greenberg, M. Single-molecule mechanics and kinetics of cardiac myosin interacting with regulated thin filaments. Biophys. J. 2023, 122, 2544-2555.
  • Lee, L.; Barrick, S.; Buvoli, A..; Walklate, J.; Stump, W.; Geeves, M.; Greenberg, M.; Leinwand, L. Distinct effects of two hearing loss-associated mutations in the sarcomeric myosin MYH7b. J. Biol Chem. 2023, 299, 104631.
  • Barrick, S.; Garg, A.; Greenberg, L.; Zhang, S.; Lin, C-Y.; Stitziel, N.; Greenberg, M. Functional assays reveal the pathogenic mechanism of a de novo tropomyosin variant identified in patient with dilated cardiomyopathy. J. Mol. Cell. Cardiol. 2023, 176, 58-67.
  • Lee, L.; Barrick, S.; Meller, A.; Walklate, J.; Lotthammer, J.; Tay, J.; Stump, W.; Bowman, G.; Geeves, M.; Greenberg, M.; Leinwand, L. Functional divergence of the sarcomeric myosin, MYH7b, supports species-specific biological roles. J. Biol. Chem. 2023, 299, 102657.
  • Papadaki, M.; Kampaengsri, T.; Barrick, S.; Campbell, S.; von Lewinski, D.; Rainer, P.; Harris, S.; Greenberg, M.; Kirk, J. Myofilament glycation in diabetes reduces contractility by inhibiting tropomyosin movement, is rescued by cMyBPC domains. J. Mol. Cell. Cardiol. 2022, 162, 1-9.
  • Barrick, S.; Greenberg, M. Cardiac myosin contraction and mechanotransduction in health and disease. J. Biol. Chem. 2021, 297, 101297.
  • Barrick, S.; Greenberg, L.; Greenberg, M. A troponin T variant linked with pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy reduces the coupling of thin filament activation to myosin and calcium binding. Mol. Biol. Cell 2021, 32, 1677-1689.
  • Barrick, S.; Clippinger, S.; Greenberg, L.; Greenberg, M. Computational tool to study perturbations in muscle regulation and its application to heart disease. Biophys. J. 2019, 116, 2246-2252.
  • Ishiyama, N.; Sarpal, R.; Wood, M.; Barrick, S.; Nishikawa, T.; Hayashi, H.; Kobb, A.; Flozak, A.; Yemelyanov, A.; Fernandez-Gonzalez, R.; Yonemura, S.; Leckband, D.; Gottardi, C.; Tepass, U.; Ikura, M. Force-dependent allostery of the α-catenin actin-binding domain controls adherens junction dynamics and functions. Nat. Commun. 2018, 9, 5121.
  • Barrick, S.; Li, J.; Kong, X.; Ray, A.; Tajkhorshid, E.; Leckband, D. Salt bridges gate α-catenin activation at intercellular junctions. Mol. Biol. Cell 2018, 29, 111-122.