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Kirienko Lab     - we work with worms -  

 

Contact Information

Skype: kirienkolab
Email: kirienko@rice.edu
Phone: 713-348-2581
Office: GRB Hall, W132

Elissa Tjahjono

Elissa Tjahjono

Research Interests:

All living organisms face variety of stresses, both abiotic and biotic (i.e. pathogen infection), that threaten to imbalance our cells homeostasis state. Upon receiving this threat, sets of defense genes are upregulated to mitigate damage and restore normal cellular functions. While the classical immune pathways have been being well explored, cellular surveillance mechanisms (i.e. hosts constantly monitor its own core cellular functions for early warnings), especially in the organellular level, is a relatively new area. We have previously shown that defense against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a notorious multi-host and opportunistic pathogen, in Liquid Killing assay requires a conserved mitochondrial surveillance pathway. This pathway is regulated by ESRE (Ethanol and Stress Response Element) motif, which is induced upon various mitochondrial insults. As mitochondria are at the center of and regulate numerous critical biochemical cellular processes, it is of absolute importance to understand the mechanism involved in the regulation of the ESRE network. Thus, I am working on resolving the remaining fundamental questions: who are the key players in this network? how a damage signal can be recognized? what are the connections between this network and other mitochondrial surveillance machineries and mitophagy? ... Wish me luck! :)