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! :) |