Jessica Young

Mentor: Albert LaSpada
Box: 357110
Phone: 206-616-8364
Email: jeyoung@u.washington.edu
http://depts.washington.edu/labweb/Faculty/laspada/index.html

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Jessica Young is a graduate student in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program (MCB) working in the lab of Dr. Albert La Spada. She is studying the role of autophagy as a stress response in age-related neurodegenerative disorders. She is working on the development and characterization of the autophagic response in mouse primary cortical neurons and how this response modulates cell death in neurons expressing proteins with an expanded polyglutamine repeat. Thus far, Jessica has found that primary neurons can activate an mTOR-dependent autophagy response when placed under nutrient stress and that this response is protective against apoptotic cell death induced by expanded polyglutamine repeats. She is also looking at autophagy induction and progression in vivo in mouse models of the neurodegenerative disorder Spinal and Bulbar Muscular Atrophy (SBMA). SBMA, also called Kennedy's disease, is due to a polyglutamine expansion in the androgen receptor protein. This mutation results in age-dependent lower motor neuron loss, leading to symptoms of muscle weakness and atrophy. Ultrastructual analysis of motor neurons in our mouse model suggests a robust induction of autophagy in affected cells, but failure of completion of the pathway. Current studies are under way to understand the potential impairment of the autophagy pathway in this model.

Publications (in progress)
Young JE, Martinez RA, and La Spada AR. Nutrient deprivation induces neuronal autophagy and implicates reduced insuling signaling in neuroprotective autophagy activation. J Biol Chem. Manuscript in revision.