ULK1 (UNC-51 like kinase 1) is a serine/threonine protein kinase that has been shown to play a crucial role in autophagy, a process of self digestion implicated in maintaining cellular homeostasis and in mediating type II programmed cell death. However, the exact mechanism by wh…
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder with currently no effective neuroprotective or neurorestorative treatments available. Alpha-synuclein (α-syn) pathology is one of the key proteins involved in PD pathology, it has been found to induce …
Autophagy, a cellular self-degradation process, plays important roles in cancer development and progression. Autophagy can be inhibited by the anti-apoptotic protein BCL-2 which binds and sequesters the autophagy essential protein Beclin-1, therefore preventing autophagy inducti…
Mutations in the human and mouse Ostm1/Ostm1 gene result in the most severe form of autosomal recessive osteopetrosis, an inherited hematopoietic bone disorder. We isolated and characterized the Ostm1 gene responsible for the spontaneous murine osteopetrotic gl mutation and func…
Cysteine proteases cathepsins are lysosomal enzymes that regulate numerous lysosomal functions but were also appreciated for their extra-lysosomal activities and their contribution to various pathologic conditions. Given the diversity in cathepsin function, we set out to explore…
The transcriptional co-activator PGC-1a is widely accepted as the “master regulator” of mitochondrial biogenesis – an increase in mitochondrial content – and much research has been devoted to understanding PGC-1a’s role in mitochondrial remodeling. However, several studies have …
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as sulindac sulfide (SS) have shown promising antineoplastic activity in multiple tumor types, but toxicities resulting from cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibition limit their use in cancer prevention. We recently described a N,N-dimet…