Proteostasis and Proteolysis

Niki Chondrogianni Research areas: Ageing, longevity, age-related diseases, proteolysis, proteasome, redox regulation, cellular senescence, C. elegans Dr. Chondrogianni graduated and obtained her PhD from the Department of Biology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, while she was a visiting fellow at the Universities Paris 7 in France and Bristol in UK. She conducted her post-doctoral studies at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) in Athens focusing on the role of proteasome activation on cellular and organismal lifespan extension. She was trained in the use of C. elegans at the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in Greece. She established her lab at NHRF in 2009. She focuses on the genetic and environmental factors that govern ageing, longevity and age-related diseases with emphasis on proteasome regulation. She is seeking for natural or chemically-synthesized compounds that may act as proteasome activators and thus may serve as anti-ageing agents and/or as anti-aggregation compounds that can decelerate the progression of various proteinopathies with emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease. Elah Pick Research areas: Cell biology, protein biochemistry, proteolysis, redox, the ubiquitin proteasome system Prof. Elah Pick performed her graduate and postdoctoral training in cell Biochemistry, membrane traffic and protein degradation at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. She performed a second postdoctoral training at Yale university on a family of genes that regulate the molecular and biochemical mechanisms responsible for cellular responses to external stimuli and stresses. She established her own lab in Israel, at the department for Biology and Environment of the University of Haifa, located at Oranim. Her lab investigates the effect of metabolic and environmental stresses such as oxidation, on the regulation of protein degradation. Anna Gioran Research areas: Mitochondria, neurobiology, metabolism proteostatic mechanisms, C. elegans Dr. Anna Gioran carried out her graduate training at the German Center of Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn, Germany. During this time, she studied the effects of mitochondrial deficiency on the morphology of the nematode’s neurons. In her first postdoctoral fellowship she continued at the DZNE and she focused more on mitochondrial deficiencies and specifically on their metabolic implications and manners to rescue its detrimental effects at organismal level. At the time this book was written, she was conducting her second postdoctoral research under the supervision of Dr. Niki Chondrogianni at the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens, Greece, focusing on the interplay between proteostatic mechanisms and mitochondrial function.