Conservation of S-Acylation in Proteostasis

The goal of the NeurdyPhagy Lab is to identify points of convergence between neurodegenerative diseases to develop therapeutics that can be applied to multiple diseases, with a focus on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington disease (HD). One hallmark feature of many neurodegenerative diseases is the mislocalization of proteins associated with decreased protein turnover or proteostasis deficiency. A focus within the lab is studying how S-acylation regulates protein trafficking and turnover in neurodegeneration. S-acylation involves the reversible addition of fatty acids, predominantly palmitate, to cysteine residues. It is more commonly referred to as S-palmitoylation. Our NSERC funding is directed at studying the conservation of S-palmitoylation in protein clearance in yeast, flies, and mammals (heterologous and primary neuronal cell culture and mice).