Biographies of invited speakers

November 3rd, 2016

Day 1

Shigeo Murata, Tokyo University, Japan

Regulation mechanisms of proteasome activity

Shigeo Murata received his M.D. in 1994, and following two years’ residency

training in internal medicine, he received his Ph.D. in 2000 from the University of

Tokyo. As a postdoctoral researcher he joined the lab of Keiji Tanaka at Tokyo

Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science and was appointed in 2007 as a Professor

in the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Tokyo.

Shigeo’s research focuses on understanding how the proteasome is regulated. He has

published papers on the chaperone-dependent ubiquitin ligase CHIP, the proteasome

activator PA28, the assembly mechanism of the proteasome, and discovery of the

thymus-specific proteasome that plays an essential role in thymic selection.

Session I: Intracellular proteolytic systems I: Proteasome structure, assembly and function

(WG2)

Chairs: Arkaitz Carracedo Perez (WG6), Pascale Bomont (WG2)

Arkaitz Carracedo, CIC bioGUNE &

IKERBASQUE, Spain

Cell Signalling and Metabolism in Cancer

Arkaitz Carracedo obtained is Phd at Complutense University (Madrid, Spain) and

carried out his postdoctoral training at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

(NY, USA) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical School/Harvard Medical School

(Boston, USA). Currently he is a group leader at CIC bioGUNE and also an

IKERBASQUE Research Professor at the University of the Basque Country.

Arkaitz Carracedo research career is focused on the biological basis of the cancer

cell, the mechanism of resistance to anticancer therapies and the utilization of mouse

models of human cancer to study this disease. The research in the Carracedo lab is

aimed at deconstructing the essential requirements of cancer cells with special

emphasis on the translation of the acquired knowledge from bench to bedside. In

order to define the genuine features of cancer cells, Arkaitz Carracedo focuses on the

signalling and metabolic alterations in prostate and breast cancer. Through the use of

a hierarchical approach with increasing complexity, he works on cell lines and

primary cultures (using cell and molecular biology technologies), mouse models of

prostate cancer that are faithful to the human disease and the analysis of human

specimens through the development of prospective and retrospective studies. Arkaitz

Carracedo ’s work stems from the hypothesis that cancer is driven by signalling and

metabolic alterations that, once identified, can be targeted for therapy. The work

performed by Arkaitz Carracedo has been recognized by several honours at national

and European level, such as for example the “Ramón y Cajal” Programme (awarded

by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) and the ERC Starting

Grant (the most prestigious scientific recognition awarded by the European Research

Council).

Prasanna Venkatraman, ACTREC, India

Proteasome Assembly Chaperones at the Hub of Action

Prasanna Venkatraman is a Biochemist and Biophysicist by training. She obtained

her PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. She did her post-

doctoral research in USA at UCSF, San Francisco, at the Harvard Medical School,

Boston, and was a Senior Scientist at the Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester.

After eight years in the States, she came back home and started as a Principal

Investigator at the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in

Mumbai, India.

Venkatraman’s research over the last decade focuses on the identification of novel

enzyme-ligand and protein-protein interactions using a battery of biochemical and

biophysical techniques. The intent is to establish the importance of direct physical

interactions mediated by Short Liner Sequence Motifs and hot spot sites in

physiological functions and their expansion to network biology. One of the thrust

areas is to determine the structure, function, and biology of the proteasomal assembly

chaperones, PSMD9 and PSMD10. By mapping the interactome on clinical data, and

integrating molecular details of mechanism emanating from the laboratory

investigations, the lab aims to define the relative importance and precise role of these

chaperones in cancer and other chronic diseases. The hope is to identify novel targets

for intervention and expand the landscape of ‘druggable’ genomes.

Session II: Intracellular proteolytic systems II: Autophagy (WG2)

Chairs: Teresa Zoladek, Sandra Tenreiro (WG2)

Anne Simonsen, University of Oslo, Norway

Regulation of autophagy by lipid-binding proteins

Anne Simonsen (http://www.med.uio.no/imb/english/people/aca/annesi/index.html)

is a professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine at the Institute of Basic

Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, where she heads a lab of 12

people. The Simonsen Lab is focusing on the molecular mechanisms of selective

autophagy and lipid binding proteins involved in autophagosome biogenesis.

Anne Simonsen received the PhD degree in 1996 at the University of Oslo, Norway

and did two postdoc periods at the Norwegian Radiumhospital and the Salk Institute

of Biological studies, CA, USA. She became a full professor in 2011 and has also

been the Head of Department of Molecular Medicine since 2015. Dr. Simonsen is a

member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and the Autophagy editorial board.

Prof Simonsen will in her talk discuss how lipid-binding proteins are involved in

regulation of the extent of autophagosome formation and autophagic degradation.

She will present data from a recent siRNA screen for PX domain proteins involved in

autophagosome biogenesis where both positive and negative regulators of autophagy

were identified.

Gábor Bánhegyi, Semmelweis University, Hungary

GADD34: a link between ER stress and autophagy

Gábor Bánhegyi is an MD by training and obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from

the Semmelweis University, Budapest. He spent several years as PostDoc or visiting

professor funded by European Science Foundation and “Rientro dei Cervelli”

fellowships at University of Siena, Italy. He became full professor of Biochemistry at

the Semmelweis University in 2007, where he is also the Chair of the Department of

Medical Chemistry, Molecular Biology and Pathobiochemistry.

His research focuses on redox homeostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lumen

and its connections with the pathomechanism of ER stress and ER-dependent

apoptosis and autophagy. He has published several papers on the transport of redox-

active compounds through the ER membrane. His team investigates the redox-based

nutrient sensing in the ER, which can serves as a factor in the pathomechanism of

obesity-related diseases. They use a systems biology approach combined with

experimental techniques for revealing the decision-making between survival and cell

death in ER stress.

Session III: Protein modification in intracellular proteolysis (WG1)

Chairs: Marc Piechaczyk (WG6), Isabelle Jupin (WG1), Sebastian Leon (WG1)

Frauke Melchior, ZMBH, Germany

SUMOylation in signal transduction

Frauke Melchior studied chemistry in Marburg and Bristol, and graduated i1990 in

biochemistry. After postdoctoral work at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry,

Göttingen, she moved to the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, where she started to

work on nucleocytoplasmic transport in mammalian cells. Here, she revealed a role

for the GTPase Ran in nucleocytoplasmic transport and discovered "SUMOylation".

Since 1998 she leads her own team, initially as a junior group leader at the MPI for

Biochemistry in Martinsried, then as Professor for Biochemistry at the Medical

Faculty, Göttingen, and since 2009 as Professor for Molecular Biology at the ZMBH,

a research Center of Heidelberg University. Her research on fundamental

mechanisms of SUMOylation connects to many different cellular pathways,

including nucleocytoplasmic transport, signal transduction including stress response,

and cell cycle. In addition to research and teaching, Frauke Melchior served as

prodean and is currently dean of the Faculty of Biosciences. In addition, she served

in committees of the Alexander von Humbold Foundation and the German Research

Foundation. She received the Young Investigator Award "BioFuture" of the Federal

Ministry for Education and Research in 1999, was elected to EMBO in 2007 and to

the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2014.

Amir Orian, Rappaport Research Institute, Israel

Regulation of the differentiated cell identity by ubiquitin and ubiquitin like

pathways

Amir Orian graduated his MD/PhD from the Technion-IIT focusing on the role of the

ubiquitin pathway in NF-kB activation. In 2000 he joined the Fred Hutchinson

Cancer Research Center where he identified Myc network binding sites across the

Drosophila genome. Together with Mike Walker he identified SCFFbw7 as a key

ubiquitin ligase for c-Myc. Currently he is he is an Associated Professor at the the

Rappaport research institute and Faculty of Medicine, Technion-IIT, and a member

of the SignGene international graduate school (MDC Berlin-HUJI-TECHNION).

The Orian laboratory seeks to understand the fundamental mechanisms whereby

regulatory gene networks determine gene expression. Specifically, the lab studies

genes belonging to the ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like pathways that are critical for

maintenance of cellular identity. Notably, deregulation of such genes is associated

with aging and cancer.

The laboratory focuses on two gene networks. The first is “Identity network”,

comprising genes required to maintain the identity of differentiated cells and

therefore may serve as a barrier for tumorigenesis. The second, is the “Non-

oncogenic addiction network (NOA),” involving genes essential for cancer cells to

cope with oncogenic stress. One such gene of focus is RNF4, a SUMO-targeted

ubiquitin ligase, and its fly ortholog Dgrn. Since NOA genes are vital for cancer cell

survival, but less critical for non-transformed cells and therefore constituent genes

have the potential to serve as targets for molecular cancer therapy.

Alfred Vertegaal, LUMC, Netherlands

Uncovering Signal Transduction by Small Ubiquitin-like Modifiers

Alfred Vertegaal obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Leiden,

the Netherlands. He went on to carry out postdoctoral research in the group of Prof.

Angus Lamond, at the Wellcome Trust Biocentre in Dundee, U.K., funded by a

fellowship from the Dutch Cancer Society. Subsequently, he moved to the Leiden

University Medical Center to set up his own research group. Currently, he is

associate professor in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology.

Alfred’s research focuses on signal transduction by Small Ubiquitin-like Modifiers.

SUMOs are predominantly located in nuclei where they regulate virtually all nuclear

processes. Using mass spectrometry based proteomics, his group has identified over

1,600 SUMO target proteins including over 4,300 SUMO acceptor lysines in these

targets. Using quantitative proteomics, dynamic SUMO signaling has been

uncovered in response to various types of DNA damage. His team continues to

employ proteomic technologies to study cell-wide SUMO signal transduction.

November 4th, 2016

Day 2

Rosa Barrio, CIC bioGUNE, Spain

SUMOylation during development

Rosa Barrio is a biologist by training and obtained her PhD in Sciences from the

University Autonoma de Madrid (Spain). She did her postdoctoral stay in the

laboratory of Prof FC Kafatos (Harvard University-USA, IMBB-Greece, EMBL-

Germany) and continued at the laboratory of Dr JF de Celis and Prof García-Bellido

at the CBMSO (Madrid, Spain). There, she obtained a Ramón y Cajal award in 2003.

Since December 2004 she is in charge of the Laboratory 1 at the Functional

Genomics Unit at CIC bioGUNE.

Barrio’s research focuses on the role of SUMOylation during development,

specifically during growth and steroidogenesis. This is combined with her work on

SALL zinc finger transcription factors, regulated by SUMOylation and involved in

Townes-Brocks and the Okihiro syndromes. The team also developed technology

that can be applied to the isolaiton and analysis of proteins modified by Ubiquitin-

likes, in cultured cells and in vivo.

Session IV: Protein quality control, misfolding and aggregation (WG4)

Chairs: Rasmus Hartmann-Petersen, Paula Ludovico (WG4) (WG4)

John Christianson, Ludwig Cancer Research, UK

Functional diversity within Ubiquitin Ligase Complexes at the ER Membrane

John Christianson received his PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Chicago

in 2002. He then moved on to a post-doc in the Department of Biology at Stanford

University. In 2009, John became an Assistant Member in the Ludwig Institute for

Cancer Research at the University of Oxford.

John’s research focuses on fundamental mechanisms of protein quality control and

their relationship with cellular homeostasis. In particular, the executing components

and molecular mechanisms of endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation

(ERAD) have been of primary interests for many years. His group employs an

integrated strategy of proteomics, transcriptomics and traditional biochemistry to

understand how the class of ER-membrane embedded ubiquitin ligases and their

cofactors, substrates and activity shape cellular responses to stress and maintenance

of homeostasis.

Session V: Mitochondria and proteostasis

Chair: Andreas Bachmair (WG1), Gemma Marfany (WG6)

Miratul Muqit, University of Dundee, UK

Decoding the PINK1 kinase signalling pathway in Parkinson’s disease

Miratul Muqit is a clinical neurologist and obtained his MD from the University of

Edinburgh and PhD from University College London. At present he is a Wellcome

Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow and Group Leader at the MRC Protein

Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit at the University of Dundee. He also holds

a Consultant Neurologist (Attending) position at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee

where he continues to care for patients with Parkinson’s disease and related

disorders.

Miratul’s research focuses on determining the fundamental mechanisms that underlie

Parkinson’s disease. In particular he is interested in understanding how human

mutations in the PINK1 kinase lead to dopaminergic neurodegeneration. Over recent

years his lab has made notable advances in uncovering the regulation and

downstream role of PINK1 including the discovery that PINK1 can phosphorylate

ubiquitin in response to mitochondrial damage to activate the Parkin ubiquitin E3

ligase. This has placed PINK1 at the heart of a mitochondrial quality control pathway

vital for neuronal survival. His work has also stimulated new ideas to better diagnose

and treat Parkinson’s.

Session VI: Regulation of cell signaling I- Activation of signaling cascades (WG3)

Chairs: Dan Lindholm (WG3), Henrique Girao (WG3)

Michael Clague, University of Liverpool, UK

Linking location with function in DUB space

Michael Clague obtained a PhD in biological chemistry from University of Essex.

For post-doctoral work he moved to NIH, Bethesda USA to study the biophysics of

membrane fusion. He then obtained an EMBO long term fellowship which allowed

him to move to EMBL, Heidelberg, to study cell biology (membrane trafficking) for

the first time. He was then appointed to a faculty position at Liverpool and is

currently Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. Early work at Liverpool

focused on the role of phosphoinositide metabolism along the endocytic pathway. He

has defined the endosomal degradation pathway of the c-Met receptor and

undertaken further mechanistic studies of EGFR trafficking and signaling. Working

together with Sylvie Urbé he characterised endosomal deubiquitylases, providing the

first example of a ubiquitin chain-linkage specific enzyme. This has led to a broader

interest in ubiquitin biology and the deubiquitylase family as potential drug targets.

Current work investigates these enzymes in pathways germane to cancer and

neurodegeneration, uses mass spectrometry to investigate cell signaling networks and

various cell biology approaches to study membrane organisation in breast cancer

cells.

Simona Polo, IFOM, Italy

HECW1 in cancer and neurodegeneration

Simona Polo studied Biological Sciences and received her Ph.D. in Genetics at the

University of Milan. She conducted postdoctoral research at San Raffaele Scientific

Institute studying the molecular determinants of the receptor-mediated HIV entry and HIV-

inhibitory functions of chemokines. In 1999 she joined the group of Prof. Pier Paolo Di

Fiore at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) Milan as senior scientist, acquiring a

strong expertise in the field of endocytosis. At that time she discovered and defined the

role of ubiquitin in the internalization of the epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR. In

2005, she started her own line of research at IFOM studying ubiquitin as a signaling device

with a particular focus on cancer biology. In Polo lab, biochemical and biophysical

techniques, including mass spectrometry and crystallography, are coupled with classical

mammalian cell-based assays and, more recently, with the use of Drosophila model

system. Work of her lab in the last ten years has led to significant breakthroughs in the

ubiquitin system. To name but a few her first paper published in the field (Polo et al.,

Nature 2002) and the first one signed as last author (Sigismund et al., PNAS 2005)

received more than 400 citations/each. In recognition of her studies she received the

prestigious EMBO Young Investigator award in 2009 and was elected EMBO member this

year.

Fumiyo Ikeda, IMBA, Austria

Ubiquitin E3 ligases in the regulation of apoptosis and autophagy

Fumiyo Ikeda is a dentist by training and obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from the

Graduate School of Dentistry at the Osaka University in Japan. She went on to do a

postdoctoral research in Ivan Dikic Lab funded by a few different fellowships (by the

Uehara Memorial Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and Japan Society

for the Promotion of Science) at the Goethe University of Frankfurt in Germany. After her

postdoctoral studies, she became a group leader at IMBA (Institute of Molecular

Biotechnology of Austrian Academy of Sciences) in Vienna, Austria in 2011.

Fumiyo’s research focuses on ubiquitin signaling in the regulation of immune and stress

responses. She is interested in ubiquitin E3 ligases in general, and their products, namely

ubiquitin chains. In particular, her team is aiming to decipher how the linear ubiquitination

signal is implicated in stress or immune responses, and to understand the regulatory

mechanisms of autophagy by ubiquitin E3 ligases.

Session VII: Tool Development in Proteostasis (WG6)

Chairs: Rune Matthiesen (WG1), Boris Turk (WG6)

Huib Ovaa, NKI Amsterdam, Netherlands

Huib Ovaa, Leiden University Medical Center, Department of Chemical Immunology

Chemistry of the Ubiquitin system

Huib Ovaa, is group leader at Leiden University Medical Center (NL). He studied

chemistry at Leiden University where he also obtained his PhD degree in organic synthesis

in 2001 under the supervision of the late J.H. van Boom. He then moved to Harvard

Medical to work in the field of proteolysis and antigen presentation and joined the lab of

Hidde Ploegh as a postdoctoral fellow. Here he worked on the synthesis of Ub-based

reagents based on intein chemistry. Using these reagents he co-discovered OTU proteases

as a new family of DUBs. After his postdoc he remained at Harvard Medical School for

another year as instructor in pathology before starting his own chemical biology lab at the

Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam in 2004. This lab was at the basis of

many ubiquitin chemistries used nowadays in the construction of ubiquitin chains and

reagents. In July 2016 the Ovaa lab moved to Leiden University Medical Center to start a

new department of chemical immunology and a new interdisciplinary chemical biology

institute with Leiden University.

Michael Glickman

Michael Glickman, Technion, Israel

Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

From single proteins to proteomic drifts

Michael Glickman studied chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel and

obtained his PhD degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994. From there

he went to Harvard Medical School in Boston. In 1999 he became Senior Lecturer

(assistant Professor) at the Technion – Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, where he

has been full professor since 2009. He has been Visiting Scientist/Visiting Professor in the

U.S.A. at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland and at the University

of Maryland as well as in France at the Institute Jacques Monod and the University Paris

Diderot in Paris. Professor Michael Glickman of Technion, the Israel Institute of

Technology in Haifa, has been named to receive the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research

Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) for his research achievements.

Research interests – ubiquitin- and proteasome-mediated proteolysis.

(i) Proteasome structure and function; (ii) proteomics of the ubiquitin system, (iii).

Recognition of the ubiquitin signals by shuttle proteins, (iv) mitochondria and ubiquitin-

proteasome system reciprocity (v) Participation of ubiquitin system in staving off

Alzheimer’s Disease.

November 5th, 2016

Day 3

Tilman Grune, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Germany

Role of oxidative stress in age-related proteostasis changes

Tilman Grune is a medical biochemist by training and obtained his MD in Biochemistry

from the Medical Faculty Berlin (Charité). He had PostDoc positions at the Charité and the

Berlin Institute of Molecular Pharmacology. Later he went to do a PostDoc funded by the

German Research Council at the Albany Medical College. After several junior faculty

positions he became full professor of Biofunctionality of Food in 2006. In 2010 he became

a professor of Nutritional Toxicology and director of Institute of Nutrition of the Friedrich-

Schiller-University in Jena. Since 2014 he is the scientific director of the German Institute

of Human Nutrition and professor for Molecular Toxicology at the University of Potsdam

and the German Institute of Human Nutrition.

His research focusses on the redox regulation of cellular processes, in particular during

aging and metabolic diseases, with a special focus on oxidative protein damage and

proteostasis. He has published numerous papers on oxidative stress-related protein damage

and the proteolytic response under such conditions. Especially age-related changes of the

maintenance of the protein homeostasis were in the focus of his research.

Session VIII: Regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation (WG5)

Chairs: Dimitris Xirodimas (WG5), Christine Blattner (WG5)

Dimitris P. Xirodimas, CRBM Institute in Montpellier, France

The role of the deNEDDylating enzyme NEDP1 in the DNA damage induced

apoptosis

Dimitris Xirodimas received his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology in 1996 and

obtained his PhD degree in Molecular Oncology in 2000 from the University of Dundee,

Scotland, UK. He continued his postdoctoral studies in Prof. Sir David Lane’s laboratory

in the same University before moving to Prof. Ronald T. Hay’s laboratory in the University

of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK in 2004. In 2005 he was recipient of an AICR (Association

for International Cancer Research) fellowship to develop his independent research team in

the Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression at the University of Dundee. In 2010 he

established his laboratory in the CRBM Institute in Montpellier, France.

Dimitris’s research is focused on the role of the ubiquitin-like molecule NEDD8 in the

cellular response to stress. His laboratory combines C. elegans genetics with biochemical,

biological and proteomic approaches in human cells to identify targets for the NEDD8

pathway and understand how protein NEDDylation responds to proteotoxic and genotoxic

stress. His studies aim revealing mechanisms of detection, repair and/or elimination of

damaged protein/DNA controlled by protein NEDDylation.

Session IX: Intracellular Proteostasis and Health I: Aging and Proteostasis WG6)

Chairs: Wiep Scheper (WG4), Efthimios Skoulakis (WG6)

Thorsten Hoppe, University of Cologne, Germany

Ubiquitin sets the timer: coordination of aging and proteostasis.

Thorsten Hoppe (PhD) was born and raised in Germany. During his PhD with Stefan

Jentsch he carried out seminal studies relevant to ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis. On the

one hand he found a novel class of enzymes, the so called E4 factors, which regulate the

extension of polyubiquitin chains on substrate proteins. In addition, his work identified the

highly conserved, unconventional processing mechanism of protein precursors by the 26S

proteasome, including NFkB-like proteins (the “OLE-pathway”).

During his postdoctoral studies at the Gene Center in Munich, he established innovative in

vivo screening assays that allowed for the first time the powerful combination of both

genetic and biochemical techniques in the multicellular nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

His laboratory identified a muscle-specific quality control pathway fundamental to human

myopathy. The ultimate goal of Thorsten Hoppe’s research is to assemble a global picture

of inducible proteostasis pathways that are critical for aging and disease. In this respect, his

lab contributed one of the first observations on ubiquitin-dependent regulation of the aging

process. Thorsten Hoppe was an EMBO Young Investigator (2008-2010) and received a

Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) in 2013 to study the cross

talk between autophagy and the ubiquitin system.

Carina I. Holmberg, University of Helsinki, Finland

Proteasome Regulator with Prognostic Marker Potential for Gastrointestinal Cancer

Carina I. Holmberg obtained her PhD in biochemistry from Åbo Akademi University in

Turku, Finland. She did a PostDoc supported by an HFSP long-term fellowship at

Nortwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. She then obtained an Academy Research

Fellow position from the Academy of Finland and an Adjunct Professorship in Cell and

Molecular Biology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, where she currently works at the

Translational Cancer Research Program in the Research Programs Unit, Faculty of

Medicine.

Carina’s research focuses on unravelling molecular mechanisms and signalling pathways

involved in regulating proteasome activity in vivo and their contribution to aging-related

disorders. Her team has developed several novel fluorescence-based reporter systems to

facilitate tissue-specific live analysis at the organismal level, in particular in C. elegans.

Translational approaches are employed to address the potential roles of the genetic

proteasome regulators in for example gastrointestinal cancers.

Session X: Intracellular Proteostasis and Health II: Oxidative Stress and Proteostasis (WG6)

Chairs: Gerasimos Sykiotis (WG6)

Bertrand Friguet, INSERM, France

Oxidized protein homeostasis: implication of circadian rhythm, oxidative stress and

ageing.

Bertrand Friguet is professor of Physiology at the University Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6

– Sorbonne Universités since 2007 and he is currently the head of the Department of

Biological Adaptation and Ageing, IBPS, UMR UPMC-CNRS 8256, INSERM U1164.

http://www.ibps.upmc.fr/en/research/biological-adaptation-and-ageing. He was visiting

associate in Dr. Earl Stadtman laboratory at NIH, Bethesda, Maryland (1993-1994) and

junior member at the Institut Universitaire de France (1995-2000). He was the head of the

Laboratory of Cellular Biochemistry and Biology of Ageing at the University Paris

Diderot-Paris 7 (1997-2008).

The major focus of Bertrand Friguet’s research is to elucidate the role of protein oxidative

modification and redox homeostasis as well as oxidized protein degradation and repair

during cellular ageing in vitro and ex vivo and in situations of oxidative stress leading to

accelerated ageing with relevant human cellular models. So far, he has been author of 144

papers referenced in PubMed and inventor in 5 patents. He is member of the editorial

boards of Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine and Redox Biology and member of the

scientific societies SFBBM, ASBMB, CSSI and SFRR-Europe.

Niki Chondrogianni, NHRF, Greece

Proteasome activation as an anti-ageing and anti-aggregation strategy

Niki Chondrogianni is a biologist. She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular

Biology from the University of Athens in Greece while she was a short-term visitor at the

University Denis Diderot - Paris 7 in France and at the University of Bristol in UK. She

conducted her post-doctoral studies at the National Hellenic Research Foundation in

Athens. During her post-doc, she was also trained in the use of the model organism

C.elegans at the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas, Institute of Molecular

Biology and Biotechnology in Greece. She became Research Assistant Professor at the

National Hellenic Research Foundation in 2009 and since 2013 she is Research Associate

Professor.

Chondrogianni focuses on the genetic and environmental factors that govern ageing,

longevity and age-related diseases with emphasis on the regulation of the proteasome. She

is interested in revealing proteasome regulation in terms of expression but also function.

She is seeking for natural or chemically-synthesized compounds that may act as

proteasome activators and thus may serve as anti-ageing agents. She is equally interested in

identifying compounds than can decelerate the progression of various proteinopathies with

emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease using C. elegans as a model in combination with human

cells of neuronal origin and murine primary neurons. She is a national and international

patent holder that resulted in the development of novel anti-ageing products that act

through activation of the proteasome system (two relative product series are currently in

the national and international market).

Session XI: Intracellular Proteostasis and Health III: Human Diseases and Proteostasis (WG6)

Chairs: Rosa Farras Rivera (WG6)

Konstanze F. Winklhofer, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany

Interplay Between Ubiquitin Signaling and Protein Aggregation: Implications for

Neurodegenerative Diseases

Konstanze F. Winklhofer received her MD and PhD degree from the Freie Universitaet

Berlin and the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany, respectively. As a

stipend of the German Research Foundation she trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max

Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Cellular Biochemistry Department (Prof. Dr. F. Ulrich

Hartl), Martinsried, Germany. She contuined her studies as a group leader at the Ludwig

Maximilians University, Neurobiochemistry, and at the German Center for

Neurodegenerative Diseases in Munich (DZNE). Since 2013 she is Chair of the Molecular

Cell Biology Department at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.

Research activities of the Winklhofer lab are focused on cellular quality control

mechanisms and stress response pathways that are dysregulated in neurodegenerative

diseases, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease. A major focus in this

context is the role of linkage-specific ubiquitination in maintaining neuronal integrity and

homeostasis.

Eric Reits, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Visualizing and manipulating the ubiquitin-proteasome system in Huntington’s

Disease

Eric Reits obtained his PhD at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in the lab of Jacques

Neefjes where he worked on the role of the proteasome and peptidases in antigen

presentation. More recently he started his own research group at the University of

Amsterdam to work on the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in Huntington’s

Disease. He is now head of the department and the core facility Cellular Imaging, which

includes advanced fluorescence microscopy which he uses frequently for his studies.

Eric’s research focuses on visualizing and manipulating the ubiquitination and

degradation of aggregation-prone proteins such as mutant huntingtin. Using a

combination of advanced microscopy, activity probes for proteasome and

(de)ubiquitinating enzymes, fluorescently-tagged proteins and mass spectrometry he

aims to understand the ubiquitination biology of mutant huntingtin in order to develop

strategies for treatment.