Time：Friday 9:00 AM, December 4, 2015
Location：Conference room in Biotechnology Building
Lecturer：Professor Dina Petranovic
Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Abstract:
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease causing devastating dementia, and ultimately death. Among other features, it is characterized by deposits of amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) in the amyloid plaques. The exact cause and mechanisms of neuronal death is unknown, and thus it is difficult to develop treatments. Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae can provide insights into mechanisms underlying cytotoxicity of Aβ. The Aβ1-42 peptide is the most toxic form of Aβ and shows most aggregation affinity. We constructed yeast strains with stable constitutive expression of Aβ peptides that were directed to the secretory system. When expressed from a constitutive promoter (GPD) and a low copy plasmid, Aβ1-42 caused a 10.7% decrease in growth. In comparison, Aβ1-40 was less toxic and the growth was reduced only by 2%, with the same expression system. When we measured the chronological life span (CLS) in stationary-phase, the Aβ1-42 displayed a drastically reduced ability to maintain viability and therefore a shortened CLS. We also find effects on oxidative stress, mitochondrial damage and respiration capacity.
Introduction:
Dina Petranovic obtained MSc degree (1999) in Molecular Biology from University of Zagreb, Croatia and PhD degree (2004) in Molecular Microbiology from University Paris XI, France. She did Postdoc from 2004 to 2008 at Technical University of Denmark, Denmark. In 2008, she became an Assistant Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Currently, Prof. Petranovic’s group focus on working with the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism for study of complex cellular processes, such as proteome maintenance, ageing and apoptosis. She has published over 40 research papers in prestigious journals including Science, PNAS and Metabolic Engineering.
Contact: Prof. Zongbao K. Zhao