William Hancock

About

William Hancock is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Penn State University, affiliated with the College of Engineering. His research focuses on cell and molecular bioengineering, with specific interests in kinesin molecular motors, microtubules, molecular biomechanics, nanoscale biomolecular transport, and directed assembly. Hancock's work involves understanding the mechanistic and kinetic aspects of motor proteins and their roles in intracellular transport, microtubule dynamics, and enzyme activity. He has contributed to the field through numerous publications that explore the biophysical mechanisms underlying motor protein function, microtubule growth, and cellular transport processes.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Biology
• Biochemistry
• Cell biology
• Biophysics
• Materials science
• Nanotechnology
• Physics
• Organic chemistry
• Optics

Selected publications

• Molecular mechanisms underlying microtubule growth dynamics

  Current Biology · 2021 · 86 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Kinesin-1, -2, and -3 motors use family-specific mechanochemical strategies to effectively compete with dynein during bidirectional transport

  eLife · 2022 · 41 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Bidirectional cargo transport in neurons requires competing activity of motors from the kinesin-1, -2, and -3 superfamilies against cytoplasmic dynein-1. Previous studies demonstrated that when kinesin-1 attached to dynein-dynactin-BicD2 (DDB) complex, the tethered motors move slowly with a slight plus-end bias, suggesting kinesin-1 overpowers DDB but DDB generates a substantial hindering load. Compared to kinesin-1, motors from the kinesin-2 and -3 families display a higher sensitivity to load…

  PublisherDOI

• A kinetic dissection of the fast and superprocessive kinesin-3 KIF1A reveals a predominant one-head-bound state during its chemomechanical cycle

  Journal of Biological Chemistry · 2020 · 36 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The kinesin-3 family contains the fastest and most processive motors of the three neuronal transport kinesin families, yet the sequence of states and rates of kinetic transitions that comprise the chemomechanical cycle and give rise to their unique properties are poorly understood. We used stopped-flow fluorescence spectroscopy and single-molecule motility assays to delineate the chemomechanical cycle of the kinesin-3, KIF1A. Our bacterially expressed KIF1A construct, dimerized via a kinesin-1 c…

  PublisherDOI

• Dynactin p150 promotes processive motility of DDB complexes by minimizing diffusional behavior of dynein

  Molecular Biology of the Cell · 2020 · 34 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Cytoplasmic dynein is activated by forming a complex with dynactin and the adaptor protein BicD2. We used interferometric scattering (iSCAT) microscopy to track dynein-dynactin-BicD2 (DDB) complexes in vitro and developed a regression-based algorithm to classify switching between processive, diffusive, and stuck motility states. We find that DDB spends 65% of its time undergoing processive stepping, 4% undergoing 1D diffusion, and the remaining time transiently stuck to the microtubule. Although…

  DOI

• Integrated multi-wavelength microscope combining TIRFM and IRM modalities for imaging cellulases and other processive enzymes

  Biomedical Optics Express · 2021 · 23 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  We describe a multimodal microscope for visualizing processive enzymes moving on immobilized substrates. The instrument combines interference reflection microscopy (IRM) with multi-wavelength total internal reflectance fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM). The microscope can localize quantum dots with a precision of 2.8 nm at 100 frames/s, and was used to image the dynamics of the cellulase, Cel7a interacting with surface-immobilized cellulose. The instrument, which was built with off-the-shelf compo…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Molecular mechanism of bidirectional transport

  NIH · $4.9M · 2021–2030

• NIH Grant R01GM100076

  NIH · $1.7M · 2017

• Biophotonics: Molecular Motor Biophotonics

  NSF · $537k · 2003–2007

Frequent coauthors

• Keith J. Mickolajczyk

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  31 shared

• Luke M. Rice

  The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

  21 shared

• Erkan Tüzel

  Temple University

  21 shared

• Allison M. Gicking

  Pennsylvania State University

  21 shared

• Joseph M. Cleary

  Pennsylvania State University

  20 shared

• Qingzhou Feng

  19 shared

• Shankar Shastry

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  18 shared

• Daguan Nong

  Pennsylvania State University

  16 shared

Similar researchers at Pennsylvania State University

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• Xiaojun Lianh-31