Description of Research Expertise

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Cellular and molecular events in neural apoptosis and polyglutamine repeat expansion neurodegenerative diseases.

RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
Cellular and molecular events regulating apoptosis and cellular pathology in polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases

RESEARCH SUMMARY
Cellular and molecular approaches are used to study signaling pathways controlling cell survival, cell death (apoptosis), and early nuclear events in polyglutamine neurodegenerative diseases. The two major projects in the lab are: 1) characterizing signaling pathways in the execution phase of apoptosis, and 2) investigating the relationship between CAG trinucleotide repeat proteins, the nuclear environment, the ubiquitin/proteasome machinery, and neuronal dysfunction/death. Apoptosis experiments are focused on understanding cellular events controlling signal transduction in the execution phase with particular emphasis on cytoskeletal changes associated with entry into the execution phase and dynamic membrane blebbing. Other studies on apoptosis are focused on kinase signaling at the interface of cell survival and cell death. Studies on the polyglutamine disease protein, ataxin-3, are currently focused on the relationship between the nuclear environment, transcriptional regulation, ubiquitination and proteasome system and neuronal dysfunction/death using cellular and animal models and reconstituted cellular and biochemical systems.