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Mitochondria

Brendan Miller by Fiona Pestana

Brendan Miller earns young investigator award from Alzheimer’s Los Angeles

By Alzheimer's and Dementia, Honors and Awards, Mitochondria, Q&A, Students

Brendan Miller is a neuroscience PhD student in the Cohen Lab. Miller, who recently earned a Young Investigator Award from Alzheimer’s Los Angeles (ALZLA), spoke to us about his research studying mitochondrial mutations in Alzheimer’s disease.

Q: What are you hoping to discover?

A: We know that mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the earliest hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, but it’s still unclear what is actually driving that dysfunction. I am hoping that we can find new mitochondrial gene mutations that are driving that dysfunction, and then we can take models that have that mutation and try to fix them.

Q: How do you find these mutations?

A: It’s a two-step process. First, we are doing big data studies to identify mutations, and then we bring it down to a molecular level — replicating those mutations in cells — to see what they’re actually doing, and trying to find the mechanism.

Q: What is the most exciting aspect of this work?

A: Most of the genetic studies that have been published have not looked at the mitochondrial DNA. There could be hundreds of really small mitochondrial genes that have been overlooked. We are looking at mutations in these small mitochondrial genes. It is exciting to see if we can look at this uncharted landscape, identify which small genes are important and eventually target treatments toward them.

USC Leonard Davis Students Win Awards at Undergraduate Symposium

By Honors and Awards, Mitochondria, School Culture, Students

Three USC Leonard Davis undergraduate students were recently recognized for their scientific achievements at the 20th Annual Undergraduate Symposium for Scholarly and Creative Work on April 11.

Sandhyarani (Sandhya) Gullapalli, mentored by Patrick Sun, PhD, of the Davies Lab,  earned second place in the category of Life Sciences I for her poster “Potential Local Adaptation to Stress in Mitochondrial and Nuclear Protein Degredation Measured in Lon Protease and Proteasome Activity in a Widely Distributed Intertidal Marine Organism”.

Sarah Wong received second place in Life Sciences II for her poster “Tissue-Specific and Systemic Adaptation to Oxidative Stress in D. melanogaster”.

Christina Sisliyan’s poster, “Is the Adaptive Homeostatic Response to Oxidative Stress Sexually Divergent in D. melanogaster,” earned an Honorable Mention in the category of Life Sciences II.

Sisliyan and Wong were both mentored by  Laura Corrales-Diaz Pomatto, USC’s first Biology of Aging PhD graduate, who is currently at the National Institute on Aging at the National institutes of Health. All three honorees are members of Professor Kelvin Davies’ lab.

Sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the symposium provides undergraduates with the unique opportunity to exhibit and share examples of their significant research and creativity with the university community and features research in arts, humanities, social sciences, life sciences, physical sciences and math and engineering. Students present work in a variety of ways, such as through poster/panel sessions, art exhibits, and electronic media. With $1000 first prizes and $500 second prizes in each category, the event awards over $15,000 in prizes each year.

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