Dr. Alexander van der Bliek, Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry, UCLA, will present the seminar “Mitochondrial Fission, Fusion and Stress” on Tues., April 9, 2013 in N172 Beadle Center.

The van der Bliek lab studies the roles of mitochondrial fission and fusion proteins in cellular response to stress. The lab is specifically focused on the control of the mitochondrial inner membrane fusion protein OPA1 through proteolysis and it is focused on the interplay between different fission proteins during the final stages of the fission process. In recent years, these processes have been connected with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s, and they were shown to be important for normal cell survival and for cell death through apoptosis.