Bikem joined the lab after competing her Ph.D. in Rob Jackson's lab, where she studied circadian regulation in Drosophila.  Bikem examined SNARE-dependent trafficking in synaptic terminals mediated by T-VAMP. The Drosophila TI-VAMP homolog, which is predicted to encode a 218 amino acid, 25 kD polypeptide is 52% identical and 75% similar to human and mouse TI-VAMP. Generation of transgenic strains expressing TI-VAMP fused with GFP demonstrate that the TI-VAMP compartment co-localizes with  lysotracker, a marker of acidic organelles.  These findings suggest TI-VAMP is present on a late endosomal/lysosomal compartment at Drosophila synapses, indicating a potential role in trafficking and degradation of synaptic signaling and cell adhesion molecules.  To examine loss-of-function phenotypes in the TI-VAMP locus, Bikem characterized  P-element excision deletions in the TI-VAMP gene.