Targeted Protein Degradation

The mito911 team is part of ASAP’s Collaborative Research Network, an international, multidisciplinary, and multi-institutional network of collaborating investigators who are working to address high-priority research questions in an effort to accelerate the pace of discovery for Parkinson’s disease and drive new ideas into the R&D pipeline.

 

ASAP has extended the mito911 team grant by two years, with total funding reaching $6 million, $700,000 of which is allocated to the Sascha Martens lab at the Max Perutz Labs. Led by James Hurley from the University of California, Berkeley, the team includes scientists from UC Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, the University of Dundee, and the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt.

 

Parkinson’s disease is characterized by the loss of dopamine-producing neurons. While a precise understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease remains elusive, mitophagy – the process of recycling damaged mitochondria – appears to play a critical role in its prevention. The mito911 team aims to lay the groundwork for therapies that promote the health and longevity of dopaminergic neurons affected by Parkinson’s disease.

 

Mitophagy is regulated by the proteins PINK1 and Parkin, both of which are frequently mutated in Parkinson’s. Perutz group leader Sascha Martens and his lab focus on understanding and dissecting this crucial pathway. Funded by ASAP through the mito911 award, the lab has published five collaborative papers on mitophagy in high-impact journals over the last four years. The strength of the ‘mito911’ team lies in its interdisciplinary nature: “Our team combines expertise from structural and cell biology to the mechanistic dissection of mitophagy. We complement each other’s work, creating a strong foundation for collaboration”, explains group leader Sascha Martens.

 

The ASAP initiative is a coordinated research initiative to accelerate discoveries for Parkinson’s disease. ASAP funding comes with specific conditions: all research must be open access, with full transparency in sharing materials and methods. “Our work is regularly evaluated according to these standards. While this adds extra work, it ensures that our work is both efficient, productive and advances the field as a whole as fast as possible” says Sascha. ASAP’s mission is to accelerate the pace of discovery and inform the path to a cure through collaboration, research-enabling resources, and data sharing. The initiative is managed by the Coalition for Aligning Science and implemented in partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Nobel Laureate Randy Schekman is the Chair of ASAP’s Scientific Advisory Board.

 

See the Max Perutz Labs News here.