Krainc Lab News and Announcements
Read the news stories below to learn about the latest happenings within our lab.
2023
September
Georgia Minakaki and Nate Safren were Poster Award recipients at the annual American Neurological Society meeting. Twenty posters were selected amongst over 400 entries. Congratulations, Georgia and Nate! Announcement highlighted here.
Pingping Song publishes in Neuron with Wesley Peng, Daniel Ysselstein, Talia Krainc, Yvette Wong, Niccolo Mencacci, and Dimitri Krainc: “Parkinson’s disease-linked parkin mutation disrupts recycling of synaptic vesicles in human dopaminergic neurons.” Highlighted here.
Georgia Minakaki selected as an Emerging Scholar Speaker and presents “A Genome-Wide CRISPR Interference Screen Reveals Genetic Modifiers of Lysosomal Glucocerebrosidase Activity” at the American Neurological Association Conference in Philadelphia. Congratulations, Georgia!
August
Dimitri Krainc is elected President of the American Neurological Association! Highlighted in Feinberg News.
July
Wesley Peng publishes in Science Advances with Leonie Schroeder, Ping Ping Song, and Dimitri Krainc: “Parkin regulates amino acid homeostasis at mitochondria-lysosome (M/L) contact sites in Parkinson’s disease.” https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh3347?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed.
June
Neil Chatterjee publishes his review in Journal of Molecular Biology with Dimitri Krainc: “Mechanisms of glucocerebrosidase dysfunction in Parkison’s disease.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283623000797?via%3Dihub
April
Mariana Hernandez Gonzelez-Monje is the recipient of the Starzl Scholar Award. This award is a fellowship in honor of advancing diversity in biomedical sciences. Bravo, Mariana! Highlighted here: https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/sites/physician-scientist/starzl-scholar-award/index.html
March
Wesley Peng matched into residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston! Congrats, and wishing you all the best, Wes!
January
Visiting Scholar Vesna Marija van Midden publishes in Clinical Genetics with Dimitri Krainc and Niccolo Mencacci: “Expanding the spectrum of KCNJ6-related disorders: Milder phenotypes with pathological startle responses.” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cge.14226
2022
December
Ignacio Keller Sarmiento publishes in Parkinsonism Related Disorders with Stephen Lubbe, Dimitri Krainc and Niccolo Mencacci: “Novel THAP1 missense variant with incomplete penetrance in a case of generalized young onset dystonia showing good response to deep brain stimulation.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353802022003509?via%3Dihub
November
Bernabé Ignacio Bustos publishes in Brain with Steven Lubbe and Dimitri Krainc: "Genome-wide contribution of common short-tandem repeats to Parkinson’s disease genetic risk." https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/146/1/65/6809166?login=true Highlighted in Feinberg news: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2022/11/09/novel-genetic-factors-contribute-to-parkinsons-risk/
August
Yvette Wong publishes in the Journal of Cell Biology with Soojin Kim, Jasmine Cisneros, Catherine G. Molakal, Pingping Song, Steven J. Lubbe, and Dimitri Krainc: "Mid51/Fis1 mitochondrial oligomerization complex drives lysosomal untethering and network dynamics." https://rupress.org/jcb/article/221/10/e202206140/213434/Mid51-Fis1-mitochondrial-oligomerization-complex Highlighted in Feinberg news: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2022/10/25/study-investigates-crosstalk-between-mitochondria-and-lysosomes/
2021
October
Yvette Wong receives the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award supportingearly-career investigators conducting unconventional and innovative research projects in the biomedical, behavioral or social sciences. Highlighted in Feinberg news: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2021/10/05/wong-honored-with-nih-new-innovator-award/
May
Dimitri Krainc receives a Research Program Award grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), providing eight years of funding totaling about $9 million. Highlighted in Feinberg news: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2021/05/07/krainc-to-receive-9-million-8-year-nih-grant/
2020
December
Dan Ysselstein publishes in Nature Communications with Maria Nguyen, Tiffany Young, Alex Severino, and Michael Schwake: "LRRK2 kinase activity regulates lysosomal glucocerebrosidase in neurons derived from Parkinson's disease patients." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13413-w. Highlighted in Feinberg news: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2020/01/genetics-offers-new-therapeutic-opportunities-for-parkinsons-disease/
2019
December
Dan Ysselstein publishes in Nature Communications with Maria Nguyen, Tiffany Young, Alex Severino, and Michael Schwake: "LRRK2 kinase activity regulates lysosomal glucocerebrosidase in neurons derived from Parkinson's disease patients." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13413-w. Highlighted in Feinberg news: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2020/01/genetics-offers-new-therapeutic-opportunities-for-parkinsons-disease/
October
Lena Burbulla publishes in Science Translational Medicine with Sohee Jeon, Jianbin Zheng and Pingping Song: "A modulator of wild-type glucocerebrosidase improves pathogenic phenotypes in dopaminergic neuronal models of Parkinson's disease." https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/514/eaau6870.short. Highlighted in Feinberg news: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2019/10/personalized-approach-to-parkinsons-treatment/
September
Wesley Peng passes his Ph.D. qualifying exam for NUIN (Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program) and is awarded the F30 NRSA Predoctoral fellowship from NIH (NIA)!
July
Yvette Wong and Wesley Peng publish in Developmental Cell: “Lysosomal Regulation of Inter-mitochondrial Contact Fate and Motility in Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 2”. Highlighted in Feinberg news: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2019/07/mitochondrial-defects-contribute-to-muscular-disease/
April
Niccolo Mencacci is awarded the Movement Disorders Fellowship from the Parkinson’s Foundation!
Yvette Wong is awarded the Distinguished Scholars Fellowship from the Warren Alpert Foundation which supports postdoctoral researchers of exceptional creativity in the basic neurosciences!
Soojin Kim is awarded the 2019 IBRO World Congress Travel Award from the Society of Neuroscience!
March
Dan Ysselstein publishes his Review in Movement Disorders: "Emerging links between pediatric lysosomal storage diseases and adult parkinsonism." https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/mds.27631
Yvette Wong publishes her Review in Trends in Cell Biology with Soojin Kim and Wesley Peng: "Regulation and Function of Mitochondria-Lysosome Membrane Contact Sites in Cellular Homeostasis." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962892419300261?via%3Dihub
February
Katarina Trajkovic publishes in Plos One with Clarissa Valdez and Dan Ysselstein: "Fluctuations in cell density alter protein markers of multiple cellular compartments, confounding experimental outcomes." https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0211727
Jianbin Zheng publishes in Journal of Medicinal Chemistry with Sohee Jeon, Weilan Jiang, Lena Burbulla, Dan Ysselstein and Kristine Oevel: "Conversion of Quinazoline Modulators from Inhibitors to Activators of β-Glucocerebrosidase." https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b01294
Maria Ngyuen publishes her Review in Trends in Neurosciences with Yvette Wong, Dan Ysselstein and Alex Severino: "Synaptic, Mitochondrial, and Lysosomal Dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166223618302820?via%3Dihub
2018
December
Maria Nguyen successfully defends her Ph.D. thesis for NUIN (Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program) - Congrats!
November
Clarissa Valdez successfully defends her Ph.D. thesis for NUIN (Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program) - Congrats!
Maria Nguyen is awarded the Society for Neuroscience 2018 Trainee Professional Development Award!
October
Dimitri Krainc is awarded the 2018 American Neurological Association (ANA) Soriano Award and delivered a keynote lecture at the ANA's Presidential Symposium! https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2018/11/krainc-honored-at-american-neurological-association-meeting/
Lena Burbulla publishes in Brain: "Iron overload is accompanied by mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction in WDR45 mutant cells." https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/141/10/3052/5087794
September
Soojin Kim passes her Ph.D. qualifying exam for NUIN (Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program)!
Yvette Wong is awarded the K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from NIH (NINDS)!
June
MJ Kim publishes in Human Molecular Genetics with Sohee Jeon and Lena Burbulla: "Acid ceramidase inhibition ameliorates α-synuclein accumulation upon loss of GBA1 function." https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article/27/11/1972/4951460
May
Maria Nguyen publishes in PNAS: "LRRK2 phosphorylation of auxilin mediates synaptic defects in dopaminergic neurons from patients with Parkinson's disease." https://www.pnas.org/content/115/21/5576.long Highlighted in Feinberg news: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2018/05/early-synaptic-dysfunction-found-in-parkinsons-disease/
Jianbin Zheng publishes in Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) with Long Chen, Dan Ysselstein and Michael Schwake: "β-Glucocerebrosidase Modulators Promote Dimerization of β-Glucocerebrosidase and Reveal an Allosteric Binding Site." https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.7b13003
April
Yvette Wong is awarded the Keystone Symposia Scholarship for the Mitochondrial Biology Meeting 2018!
March
Niccolo Mencacci publishes in Annals of Neurology: "Recessive mutations in >VPS13D cause childhood onset movement disorders." https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ana.25204#
February
Yvette Wong publishes in Nature with Dan Ysselstein: "Mitochondria-lysosome contacts regulate mitochondrial fission via RAB7 GTP hydrolysis." https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25486
2017
December
Clarissa Valdez publishes in Human Molecular Genetics with Yvette Wong and Michael Schwake: "Progranulin-mediated deficiency of cathepsin D results in FTD and NCL-like phenotypes in neurons derived from FTD patients." https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/hmg/ddx364
Yvette Wong is awarded a Travel Award for the 2017 ASCB Doorstep Meeting, Cell Biology of Degeneration and Repair in the Nervous System!
November
Niccolo Mencacci publishes in Movement Disorder: "A PDE10A de novo mutation causes childhood‐onset chorea with diurnal fluctuations." https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/mds.27175
Yvette Wong is awarded the Society for Neuroscience 2017 Trainee Professional Development Award!
October
Dimitri Krainc publishes in Neurology with Maria Usenovic and Yvette Wong: "Analysis of blood-based gene expression in idiopathic Parkinson disease." https://n.neurology.org/content/89/16/1676.long
September
Clarissa Valdez is awarded the F99/K00 Blueprint D-SPAN Award from NIH (NINDS)!
Lena Burbulla publishes in Science with Pingping Song, Yvette Wong, Sohee Jeon and Judith Blanz: "Dopamine oxidation mediates mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction in Parkinson's disease." https://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6357/1255.long Highlighted in Feinberg news: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2017/09/scientists-discover-key-cellular-mechanism-underlying-parkinsons-disease/
Katarina Trajkovic publishes in Journal of Neuroscience with Hyun Jeong: "Mutant Huntingtin Is Secreted via a Late Endosomal/Lysosomal Unconventional Secretory Pathway." http://www.jneurosci.org/content/37/37/9000.long
May
Yvette Wong is awarded the F32 Postdoctoral NRSA Fellowship from NIH (NINDS)!
Niccolo Mencacci is awarded the 2017 David Marsden Award from Dystonia Europe for an outstanding publication in dystonia research!
February
Yvette Wong publishes her Review in Nature Medicine: "α-synuclein toxicity in neurodegeneration: mechanism and therapeutic strategies." https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.4269
MJ Kim publishes in Human Molecular Genetics with Yvette Wong: "The Parkinson's disease-linked protein TMEM230 is required for Rab8a-mediated secretory vesicle trafficking and retromer trafficking." https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article/26/4/729/2937789
January
Jessica McDonald publishes her Review in Annual Review of Medicine: "Lysosomal Proteins as a Therapeutic Target in Neurodegeneration." https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-med-050715-104432?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed