Research Frontiers

Dr. Ron Kopito and Dr. Brigit Riley

HOPES interview notes
Dr. Ron Kopito and Dr. Brigit Riley
April 5, 2006

In April 2006, Christina Chen and Justine Seidenfeld visited the Kopito Laboratory in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. HOPES would like to thank Dr. Ron Kopito and the members of his lab, particularly Dr. Brigit Riley, for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with us, and share their perspectives on Huntington’s Disease research.

Introduction

In a cell, proteins are constantly being produced or destroyed in order to ensure that a healthy balance is sustained. Many neurodegenerative diseases are associated with an imbalance of proteins. They often involve mutated or misfolded proteins that are toxic to the nerve cell. The Kopito lab looks at one of the most well-known systems for clearing out misfolded proteins, the proteosome. The proteosome is a protein complex that digests unwanted proteins into short chains of amino acids. The proteosome has many roles in the cell and plays a part in many processes, such as the cell cycle, communication between proteins, and the production of proteins. Research about the proteosome is an increasingly important part of our understanding of disorders involving misfolded proteins like HD.

• Becoming involved in HD research
• Getting involved in the HD community
• The “top-down” approach
• Current research projects
• Autophagy, or “self-eating”
• Autophagy and HD
• Autophagy research in the Kopito Lab
• More on Dr. Riley
• Life as a post-doctoral student
• Dr. Kopito, HD research, and the public

Last Modified: 09/11/2007

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