Investigator:
Peter Chung, PhD
Name of Institution:
University of Southern California (USC)
Project Title:
Exploring the Role of Lipid Droplets in a-Synuclein Binding and Multimerization
Investigator Bio:
Dr. Peter J. Chung is the Robert D. Beyer (’81) Early Career Chair in the Natural Sciences and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southern California, with courtesy appointments in the Department of Chemistry and the Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering. He leads a research program at the interface of soft matter physics and molecular biology, with particular interest in intrinsically disordered proteins, lipid membranes, and their roles in neurodegenerative disease.
Dr. Chung earned his PhD in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, under the mentorship of Prof. Cyrus R. Safinya, where he investigated cytoskeletal architectures mediated by the microtubule-associated protein Tau, a protein central to Alzheimer’s disease. He then trained as a Kadanoff-Rice Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago, working with Prof. Ka Yee C. Lee on the membrane interactions of a-synuclein, a protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease.
His current research combines recombinant protein engineering with high-throughput biophysical approaches to uncover the molecular determinants of protein-protein and protein-membrane interactions, with a particular focus on disease-associated mutations and post-translational modifications. Dr. Chung’s work has been recognized with the William E. and Diane M. Spicer Young Investigator Award and has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Epstein Breakthrough Alzheimer’s Research Fund.
Objectives/Background:
This project will investigate the early pathological changes in Parkinson’s disease which lead to the clumping of the protein a-synuclein within the brain.
Recent research has revealed that a-synuclein clumping may be triggered by its interaction with specific lipid droplets, enriched in a specific type of fat. By studying this process, we hope to uncover how these early interactions contribute to disease progression.
Methods/Design:
In this project, we will investigate whether a-synuclein binds to specific types of lipid droplets and whether this interaction triggers early stages of clumping. Using both artificial and cell-derived lipid droplets, we will test how fat composition affects binding. We will also use advanced X-ray techniques to observe if binding leads to clustering, which may be an early step in the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Relevance to Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease:
If a-synuclein is shown to bind and cluster on specific lipid droplets, this could reveal a new early trigger for the harmful cellular processes that lead to PD. These findings could lead to new therapeutic strategies that target lipid droplet composition or block the interaction entirely, offering a novel approach to slowing or preventing disease progression.