Meet Our Speakers

As a scientist, starting from my postdoc and continuing in my own lab, we have helped redefine the role of the lysosome. Historically, it was considered a “boring organelle,” just the endpoint of degradation—a cellular trash can. But we’ve demonstrated that the lysosome is actually a sophisticated signaling center. We now call it the “metabolic computer” of the cell because it integrates information from other organelles and nutrient signals, particularly through mTOR kinase. The lysosome and mTOR communicate to make key metabolic decisions, balancing anabolism and catabolism. This has far-reaching implications for various cell types, including neurons, immune cells, and cancer cells.

Professor Dario Alessi is a distinguished British biochemist whose groundbreaking research on protein kinases has significantly advanced our understanding of cellular signalling in health and disease. Born in Strasbourg, he earned his PhD from the University of Birmingham before joining the Medical Research Council’s Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC-PPU) at the University of Dundee, where he now serves as director. His pioneering work has provided critical insights into neurodegeneration, including elucidating key mechanisms of LRRK2, a kinase implicated in Parkinson’s disease, paving the way for targeted therapeutic strategies. Beyond his research, Professor Alessi is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists. As director of the MRC-PPU, he has trained and guided numerous PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, fostering an environment of excellence and innovation.

Arun Radhakrishnan, currently a professor at the Department of Molecular Genetics at UT Southwestern Medical Center, conducts research on the role of membrane cholesterol in regulating cell growth, lipid homeostasis, and immune defense against microbial infections. We had the opportunity to correspond with Arun in advance of his research seminar on Tuesday, January 28th, to gain insights into his scientific journey.

Prof. Wang is visiting us on December 10th, and we had a zoom meeting ahead of his visit to talk about his research, his learnings and personal reflections from such an accomplished scientific career.

We sat down with Dr Joshua Gendron to get a glimpse of his current research, his scientific journey and to learn about how he runs the Gendron Lab.

We were fortunate to have Dr. Chook from UTSW visit us. Kerry Larkin sat down with Dr. Chook to discuss her scientific journey.

Avinash Kumar discusses science and life with our invited speaker Dr. Shixin Liu.

Dr. Schuman talks about why she is inspired by neuroscience and the obstacles that she encountered along her impressive career.

Dr. Brian Chait, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor, at Rockefeller University, will be visiting Yale to give a talk entitled “On Methods for Probing the Protein Interactions” on May 9, 2023. His lab focuses on developing tools, centering around mass spectrometry approaches to study the structure and function of biomolecular assemblies. Caroline Brown had the pleasure of chatting with him prior to his visit to Yale to find out about his personal and scientific journey.