Elizabeth Sweeny was a graduate student in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. She has a BS from Loyola University Chicago (2007) in Chemistry. She is originally from Minnesota. In 2009 and 2013, Elizabeth won the A. Joshua Wand Prize for best poster at the B&B/BMB Retreat. In 2010, Elizabeth was awarded an American Heart Association Predoctoral fellowship. Elizabeth was a CBI scholar. Elizabeth defended her Ph.D. thesis: 'Structural and mechanistic insights into the yeast disaggregase Hsp104' in April, 2014. Elizabeth went on to pursure her post-doctoral studies with Chris Voigt at MIT.

Publications

Sweeny, E.A.^, A. Tariq, E. Gurpinar, M.S. Go, M.A. Sochor, Z.Y. Kan, L. Mayne, S.W. Englander, and J. Shorter^. (2020). Structural and mechanistic insights into Hsp104 function revealed by synchrotron x-ray footprinting. J. Biol. Chem. 295(6):1517–1538. pdf file link (^Co-corresponding author).

Tariq, A.*, J. Lin*, M.E. Jackrel*, C.D. Hesketh, P.J. Carman, K.L. Mack, R. Weitzman, C. Gambogi, O.A. Hernandez Murillo, E.A. Sweeny, E. Gurpinar, A.L. Yokom, S.N. Gates, K. Yee, S. Sudesh, J. Stillman, A.N. Rizo, D.R. Southworth, and J. Shorter. (2019). Mining disaggregase sequence space to safely counter TDP-43, FUS, and alpha-synuclein proteotoxicity. Cell Rep. 28(8):2080–2095. pdf file link (*Co-first author).

Durie, C.L., J. Lin, N.W. Scull, K.L. Mack, M.E. Jackrel, E.A. Sweeny, L.M. Castellano, J. Shorter, and A.L. Lucius. (2019). Hsp104 and potentiated variants can operate as distinct non-processive translocases. Biophys. J. 116(10):1856-1872. pdf file link

Guo, L.*, H.J. Kim*, H. Wang*, J. Monaghan°, F. Freyermuth°, J.C. Sung°, K. O’Donovan, C.M. Fare, Z. Diaz, N. Singh, Z.C. Zhang, M. Coughlin, E.A. Sweeny, M.E. DeSantis, M.E. Jackrel, C.B. Rodell, J.A. Burdick, O.D. King, A.D. Gitler, C. Lagier-Tourenne, U.B. Pandey, Y.M. Chook, J.P. Taylor, and J. Shorter. (2018). Nuclear-import receptors reverse aberrant phase transitions of RNA-binding proteins with prion-like domains. Cell. 173(3):677-692. pdf file link (*Co-first author. °Co-second author).

Gates, S.N*., A.L. Yokom*, J. Lin, M.E. Jackrel, A.N. Rizo, N.M. Kendsersky, C.E. Buell, E.A. Sweeny, K.L. Mack, E. Chuang, M.P. Torrente, M. Su, J. Shorter, and D.R. Southworth. (2017). Ratchet-like polypeptide translocation mechanism of the AAA+ disaggregase Hsp104. Science. 357(6348):273-279. pdf file link (*Co-first author).

Weaver, C.L., E.C. Duran, K.L. Mack, J. Lin, M.E. Jackrel, E.A. Sweeny, J. Shorter, and A.L. Lucius. (2017). Avidity for polypeptide binding by nucleotide-bound Hsp104 structures. Biochemistry. 56(15):2071–2075. pdf file link

Sweeny, E.A., and J. Shorter. (2016). Mechanistic and structural insights into the prion-disaggregase activity of Hsp104. J. Mol. Biol. 428(9):1870-1885. pdf file link

Sweeny, E.A., M.E. Jackrel, M.S. Go, M.A. Sochor, B.M. Razzo, M.E. DeSantis, K. Gupta, and J. Shorter. (2015). The Hsp104 N-terminal domain enables disaggregase plasticity and potentiation. Mol. Cell. 57(5):836-849. pdf file link

DeSantis, M.E., E.A. Sweeny, D. Snead, E.H. Leung, M.S. Go, K. Gupta, P. Wendler, and J. Shorter. (2014). Conserved distal loop residues in the Hsp104 and ClpB middle domain contact nucleotide-binding domain 2 and enable Hsp70-dependent protein disaggregation. J. Biol. Chem. 289(2):848-867. pdf file link

DeSantis, M.E., E.H. Leung, E.A. Sweeny, M.E. Jackrel, M. Cushman-Nick, A. Neuhaus-Follini, S. Vashist, M.A. Sochor, M.N. Knight, and J. Shorter. (2012). Operational Plasticity Enables Hsp104 to Disaggregate Diverse Amyloid and Non-Amyloid Clients. Cell. 151:778-793. pdf file link

Sweeny, E.A., M.E. DeSantis and J. Shorter. (2011). Purification of Hsp104, a protein disaggregase. J. Vis. Exp.(55), e3190, DOI: 10.3791/3190 pdf file link

Roberts B.E., M.L. Duennwald, H. Wang, C. Chung, N.P. Lopreiato, E.A. Sweeny, M.N. Knight and J. Shorter. (2009). A synergistic small-molecule combination directly eradicates diverse prion strain structures. Nat. Chem. Biol. 5(12):936-946. pdf file link

Sweeny, E.A. and J. Shorter. (2008). Prion proteostasis: Hsp104 meets its supporting cast. Prion. 2(4): 135-40. pdf file link