Setting the bar!

Selin is a PhD candidate in the Pharmacology program and she is studying how the multi-functional enzyme CHIP regulates microtubule dynamics, including in models of neurodegeneration. I met Selin while teaching PHCO 732, our grant writing course in the Pharmacology program. The stars aligned, and we welcomed her to our lab a year later…we are happy to have her on our team! She is a great biologist and immediately made a strong and exciting addition to both our science and lab environment. She is working with Todd Cohen’s lab as part of our collaborative studies to cure Alzheimer’s Disease.

We are very happy to announce two new lab members, both 2nd year Pharmacology PhD students!

Mariah is studying the mechanisms of co-chaperones and chaperone interactions on the cellular stress response using a cancer cell model. Mariah is pursuing an NSF fellowship, proposing to study the importance of these protein-protein interactions in the heat shock response, an evolutionary conserved mechanism to protect and adapt cells to heat.

Kaitlan is researching mechanisms of cell death and the link to mitochondrial dysfunction in models of cerebellar ataxia. Kaitlan is part of the PHCO T32, Pharmacological Sciences Training Program, a great stepping stone for a career in pharmacology.

We are thrilled to announce a new five year grant to study and develop treatments for diseases that involve proteins important to a process known as protein quality control. Click and read more on Vital Signs!

Becky along with Sarah and Christina presented updates on the latest cardiovascular research projects going on in the lab. It was a great day of science, and little did we know it would be our last non-virtual gathering of the semester. Great job!

Great article featuring our ongoing collaboration with the Cohen lab! We are combining forces to biochemically modify the Tau protein, allowing us to understand how Tau functions, both in health and disease, so we can find better ways to treat Alzheimer’s.

Excited to showcase our latest manuscript that inspired our design of the journal cover. Read the article, co-authored by several undergraduates in our lab!

On The Cover: Functional CHIP is necessary for proper function of the cerebellum. Disease-causing mutations, represented by the space-filled side chains were found in the three functional domains of CHIP: the TPR domain (orange) that binds substrates, the coiled-coil domain (purple and magenta) that mediate the CHIP dimer interaction, and the Ubox (green) that interacts with E2-conjugating enzymes (cyan) through a protein-protein interaction (blue/yellow).

Todd Cohen, PhD, and Jonathan Schisler, PhD, will investigate the new ideas related to the regulation of the Tau protein, which plays a role in Alzheimer’s disease.

More information here!

We are now located on the third floor of MBRB, Room 3336. Jonathan’s office is next-door in room 3340C. Come visit the new digs!

We have new undergraduate interns for 2019! So welcome to the team!

Christina D’Ovidio

Sarah Chiavacci

Sriya Kongala

Emily Greaves

Parsa Pazooki

Bridget Tarnowski

Disrupted structure and aberrant function of CHIP mediates the loss of motor and cognitive function in preclinical models of SCAR16

Immuno-stained sagittal sections of either a wild-type mouse cerebellum (left) or a cerebellum isolated from a mouse engineered with the T246M mutation in CHIP (right). The T246M mutation results in a robust decrease in CHIP expression (white) in the Purkinje cells, ultimately leading to the degeneration of Purkinje cells and a loss in motor function, mimicking the human disease known as SCAR16. In red is a false coloring of the methyl blue counterstain, indicating the molecular layer of the cerebellum.