Thesiss

The Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) is the world's largest flying avian species. Unfortunately, as is the case for many large-bodied animals, the Andean condor is now endangered from persecution and habitat destruction (listed as CITES I, the highest level of endangerment conside…

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 …

Oxidative phosphorylation couples ATP synthesis to respiratory electron transport. This coupling occurs in mitochondria, which carry DNA. Respiratory electron transport in the presence of molecular oxygen generates mutagenic reactive oxygen species (ROS) at a frequency that is i…

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia but despite being identified over a century ago, current treatments remain limited. To date, no disease-modifying therapies are available. Soluble, intracellular forms of β-amyloid (Aβ), a protein associated with AD, have…

DNA damage leads to the activation of the ATM and ATR kinases, which in turn cause either cell cycle arrest and DNA repair or apoptosis. In the first part of my thesis, we have demonstrated that the pro-apoptotic BID protein is phosphorylated by ATM in response to DNA damage, an…

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 …

Mitochondria are crucial intracellular organelles which play a pivotal role in providing energy to living organisms in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) coupled with oxidative phosphorylation (OX-PHOS) transforms the chemi…

Climate warming has been predicted to severely impact tropical biodiversity due to its effect on ectotherm metabolism, which increases exponentially with temperature. Many studies have shown that size is reduced in arthropods to compensate for the stress of increased temperature…

The regulation of mitochondrial structure and function in mammalian cells is central to many distinct viral infections as means to modulate cellular metabolism and immune responses. Indeed, alterations in mitochondria morphology and functions can be observed across evolutionaril…

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a complex mood disorder with high heterogeneity and unclear pathophysiology. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been repeatedly observed in BD; however, our understanding of mitochondrial dysfunction remains incomplete due to the lack of patient stratificatio…

Today, researchers are inundated with an overwhelming amount of data due to advances in DNA sequencing technologies. This has benefited the fields of both bioinformatics and phylogenomics substantially. With the ability to increase sampling at both the taxonomic and molecular le…