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Awardee in the News: Impact on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases thru Andrew Dillon’s Research

The October 17, 2014 issue of Science published research co-authored by Andrew Dillin, Ph.D., a member of AFAR’s BIG and Midcareer Selection Committee BIG and Midcareer Selection Committee and the 2010 recipient of the Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research.

The study explores a new method of preventing protein unraveling. As the accumulation of improperly folded proteins in the brain is a hallmark symptom of diseases of aging such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, Dr. Dillon’s research holds considerable promise.

Protein’s cellular functions as enzymes and structural components depends on it being properly shaped and folded. The cell maintains protein’s proper form by having chaperone genes monitor and refold unraveling proteins. To date, researchers have attempted to correct heat shock, a major cause of protein unraveling, by increasing the number of chaperone genes in the cell with the protein, HSF-1 (heat shock factor-1).

After running extensive experiments on nematode worm C. elegans, Dr. Dillin’s team found that a second and possible more important function of HSF-1 is to stabilize the cell’s cytoskeletion, or the cell transport pathway. Dr. Dillin hypotheses that by examining how to maintain the cytoskeletion, rather than focusing on increasing the number of chaperone genes, scientists will be able to better prevent protein unraveling.

A complete summary of this article can be found here.

Dr. Andrew Dillin is the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Distinguished Chair in Stem Cell Research at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Dillon is among the talented researchers who AFAR has recognized early in their career with the Vincent Cristofalo Raising Star Award in Aging Research, which honors individuals who demonstrate wise leadership, sophisticated judgment, and solid accomplishment. Read about 2014 year’s Raising Star Award in Aging Research recipient, Rafael de Cabo, PhD, of the National Institute on Aging, here.

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