Welcome
Our lab focuses on mechanisms of aging & longevity, oxidative stress & antioxidant genes, mitochondria, drug stress and resistance. Oxidative stress seems to be the leading cause of cellular damage and aging. Organisms have enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense systems to escape from the deleterious effects of oxidative conditions. Since most organisms utilize oxygen to make ATP, they produce reactive oxygen species as side products of their metabolism, and they all have robust antioxidant defense systems which are conserved well between different species. Among these antioxidant genes, we try to find the ones that are important for cellular aging and longevity.
Also using the awesome power of yeast genetics, we are in the process of characterizing the genetic mechanisms that underlie drug resistance against antifungal and anticancer drugs. Addition to drugs, we are also interested in boron (boric acid which is also an antifungal agent) transport and utilization in yeast. Beneficial effects of boron or mechanisms of its toxicity have not been studied well. We identified and characterized ATR1 gene as a boron efflux transporter. Currently we are using genomic, proteomic and biochemical approaches to identify additional genes that might be important in boron metabolism or toxicity.